A Vicksburg resident described as “an amazing person” who “would do anything for anyone” died Sunday in Jackson after he was run down when he stopped two men who had broken into his car.

Franklin Salas, 52, was pronounced dead at University Medical Center, Jackson Police Detective Roderick Holmes said today.

“He was an amazing person,” said Laral Chandler, Salas’ girlfriend, who moved with Salas to Vicksburg in August 2008. “He would do anything for anyone. He especially loved his family.”

Salas and Chandler, who shared a home in Vicksburg, had just left the Crawdad Hole restaurant on Lakeland Drive when he saw two people burglarizing his Ford Expedition, which was parked in the nearby lot at Smith-Wills Stadium, Holmes said this morning.

“He confronted them (while they were) inside his vehicle, they retreated and got into their own car,” Holmes said. As they drove away, the suspects hit Salas and kept going.

The suspects’ car was described as a white two-door, late-model Chevrolet Monte Carlo with chrome rims, he said.

Salas was taken to UMC, where he died from head trauma, Hinds County Coroner Sharon Grisham-Stewart said. His death has been ruled a homicide, but no arrests have been made.

Salas was the owner of South Mississippi Signs, Chandler said, and did business with Vicksburg and Gulf Coast casinos, as well as casinos in Louisiana and Florida. He originally was from Spokane and had lived in Biloxi from the early 1980s until his move to Vicksburg, Chandler said.

His body has been taken to the Bradford-O’Keefe Funeral Home in Gulfport, where a memorial service is planned for Friday, Chandler said.

Salas is survived by two daughters, residents of Warsaw, Mo., and Wilmington, N.C.; four sisters and a brother.

Anyone with information about the hit and run is asked to call Jackson police at 601-960-1234 or CrimeStoppers at 601-355-8477.