Sheriff's Deputy Involved in Fatal Auto-Pedestrian Accident

   An off-duty Jefferson County Sheriff's Office deputy was involved in a fatal auto-pedestrian accident, striking a man who was walking in the middle of a lane on Highway 105 in Beaumont, according to Officer Crystal Holmes with the Beaumont Police Department.

   It happened at about 11:25 p.m. Thursday in the 62 hundred block of Highway 105 near RFD Road. 

   Sheriff''s Patrol Deputy Jonta Miller, 24, was driving his marked Ford Crown Victoria east on Highway 105 near the LNVA canal when the patrol vehicle he was driving struck a man.

   Ofc. Holmes tells KFDM News the pedestrian, Nicholas Bryan Burton, 25, Beaumont, was walking on the inside, eastbound lane when he was struck.  He died at Christus Hospital St. Elizabeth.

   Relatives tell us Nick was a West Brook High School graduate who had returned home from Seattle.  They say he had left a convenience store and was crossing Highway 105 and coming back to his parents' home nearby when he was struck.

   The Deputy received minor injuries and was treated and released from Christus Hospital St. Elizabeth.

   The Beaumont Police Traffic Division is investigating the fatal auto-pedestrian accident.