Richard Bartlett III, Brother of Steelers' Stephon Tuitt, Killed in Hit-and-Run

The brother of Pittsburgh Steelers defensive lineman Stephon Tuitt was killed in a hit-and-run in Johns Creek, Georgia, on Wednesday night.

According to Amanda Woods of the New York Post, Johns Creek Police Capt. Todd Hood said 23-year-old Richard Bartlett III was struck and killed by a vehicle around 9:30 p.m. local time:

"The victim was following a girlfriend in a vehicle. She had a mattress strapped to the top of her car. From what we understand, they may have stopped to secure it. She had pulled over to the right-hand side of the roadway. The victim had pulled into the left-hand turn lane right there at the boat entrance to the Chattahoochee River."

Hood added: "We do know that the vehicle [that struck Bartlett] turned around in the intersection right there possibly to see what had happened or what they had hit and at that point they fled the scene."

The 28-year-old Tuitt is set to enter his eighth NFL season in 2021, all of which have been spent with the Steelers.

Tuitt was a second-round pick in the 2014 NFL draft out of Notre Dame, and he has been a stalwart on Pittsburgh's defensive line ever since.

He has 34.5 sacks during his NFL career and is coming off his best-ever season, as he finished with 45 tackles and 11 sacks for a Steelers team that won the AFC North.

Tuitt and Bartlett were originally from Miami, Florida, but they moved to Lawrenceville, Georgia, with their mother as children, per Woods.

Tuitt bought his mother, Tamara Tuitt-Bartlett, a home in Johns Creek in 2017, and she is currently a deputy with the Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Office.

Per Adam Murphy of CBS 46, Hood appealed to the public for help in identifying a potential suspect in the hit-and-run, saying: "We're asking the public to step forward and give us any information about the vehicle, the driver or the owner of the vehicle so we can hold these people accountable."