Suspect arrested in hit-and-run crash that killed UC Berkeley professor

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UC Berkeley Professor Emeritus Michael Burawoy was killed in a hit-and-run crash in Oakland on Monday night. 

OAKLAND, Calif. - Police announced the arrest of the alleged driver behind the wheel in the hit-and-run crash that killed beloved UC Berkeley professor emeritus Michael Burawoy earlier this month in Oakland.

Burawoy was killed while walking in the crosswalk at Grand Avenue and Park View Terrace on Feb. 3 around 7:15 p.m., when 61-year-old Kermith Miller allegedly struck the 77-year-old sociology scholar. 

Miller never stopped, and according to court records, Burawoy's hearing aid was found on Miller's shattered windshield. 

The backstory:

Burawoy was a world-renowned scholar whose death shocked fellow sociologists.

"It’s just been devastating," said Professor Kim Voss to KTVU in earlier reports, saying the driver had "taken from us a major figure who changed many of our lives, inspired us to do better work, to change the world."

"I don't understand how someone could do that and just leave the scene," said Cal student Vanessa Navarro-Rodriguez, during a memorial near the crash scene. 

Navarro-Rodriguez witnessed the aftermath.

"You would never imagine something like that to happen, and he clearly left a mark on a lot of people," she said. "I posted this on my social media, you know, begging people to be mindful when they're driving."

Burawoy retired in 2023 after teaching at UC Berkeley for 47 years.

One person said on social media that Burawoy was an important and inspiring figure on campus dating back to the anti-apartheid movement of the 1980s. 

What's next:

Miller is being held at the Santa Rita Jail on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter and hit-and-run causing death or injury. 

He is scheduled to be arraigned on Friday.

KTVU's Henry Lee contributed to this report.