A Port Gibson man was killed Tuesday in a hit-and-run accident on U.S. 61 South.

The body of Christopher C. Vinson, 19, 3028 U.S. 61 North, was found by family members in the median of the highway at 9:05 p.m. just south of Glass Road, Mississippi Highway Safety Patrol Sgt. John Minor Jr. said.

Vinson had been a passenger in a southbound vehicle driven by his mother, identified at the scene as Angie Bufkin. Minor confirmed that the teen and his mother had been arguing and she stopped, and he got out of the vehicle at Sonny’s, a roadside grocery.

Later, family members started searching for Vinson and thought he might be hiding from them on the roadside until the gruesome discovery was made.

He was pronounced dead at the scene of head and body trauma, Warren County Coroner Doug Huskey said. Vinson’s body was to be sent today to the Mississippi State Crime Lab in Jackson for an autopsy, Huskey added.

Glass and other bits of debris were recovered from the scene by Minor, assisted by Warren County sheriff’s deputies. None of what was discovered indicated the make or model of the vehicle that struck Vinson, authorities said.

Vinson was an employee of Hercules Offshore Inc. and was to return to work next week, his stepfather, Larry Vinson, said this morning.

It is the second death in the family in less than a year. An uncle, Donald Wayne Vinson, 39, died of a gunshot wound in February following an altercation at a bar on North Washington Street. A grand jury convened in August did not return an indictment against a brother-in-law, James Denver Ainsworth, in the case, and Ainsworth’s attorney said the shooting was clearly in self-defense.

The accident was the fifth fatality involving a motor vehicle in Warren County in 2008. Four have occurred outside Vicksburg city limits.

Glenwood Funeral Home will have charge of arrangements.