AUBURNDALE, Fla. — A mother from Auburndale is hugging her kids tighter. She could've lost them on Saturday night.
"It's just something you don't get over," Kaitlen Williams said.
The mother of three is shaken after she said she watched a driver hit and kill a man on a bicycle, and then try to leave the scene.
Colten McMullen of Lakeland, 29, is behind bars facing charges for hitting two vehicles, the bicyclist, and attempting to flee from authorities, according to the Polk County Sheriff's Office.
It happened after 10 p.m. west of U.S. 92 near Walmart in Auburndale, the sheriff's office said. They add McMullen told authorities he drank prior to driving.
"We can't let people get away with destroying families," Williams said.
Williams said she was in one of the vehicles McMullen reportedly hit. She was with her fiancé and two of her children, ages five and four.
Williams said her 4-year-old sat at the spot McMullen reportedly clipped before she watched him hit the bicyclist. No one in the family was injured.
The bicyclist who died from his injuries is a 37-year-old from Lakeland, the sheriff's office said.
"I feel bad for the guy's family," Tristian Filler, Williams' fiancé, said. "Nobody deserves to get hit on a bike when they're just trying to get to where they need to go."
Filler said he drove their SUV when they said they got struck.
Filler said he had an instinct McMullen would hit them as he was pulling up, so he was already about halfway off the road when he reportedly pulled into their lane.
"He bounced right off us," Filler said.
The family said they tried to find McMullen's license plate as he appeared to drive away.
Williams said she hopes her story reminds drivers to think before they get behind the wheel.
"It's not fair that somebody makes a selfish choice and it changes the course of everybody else's life," Williams said. "Think about your actions."
Deputies said McMullen could face more charges once a toxicology report is complete. They add he showed several signs of impairment.
McMullen told investigators he drank at the Apple Lounge on Recker Highway on Saturday night. He is under arrest at the Polk County Jail on no bond until a first appearance hearing.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with the victim's family who are certainly grieving the loss of their loved one, and our gratitude goes out to all of the witnesses who assisted us during this investigation," Sheriff Grady Judd stated in part.