A search by friends of 18-year-old Hawaii Pacific University student Zachary Manago, killed Friday by a hit-and-run driver, resulted in the arrest yesterday of a 25-year-old Mililani man.

Police arrested the man shortly before 5 p.m. on suspicion of first-degree negligent homicide and fleeing the scene of an accident. Both are Class B felonies, each carrying a 10-year maximum sentence.

Police also recovered a white Saturn sport utility vehicle.

"The father said Zach’s friends went looking for the SUV, and they found it," said Manago’s aunt Amy Manago.

Manago was on his bicycle with a group of about 30 to 40 cyclists on a round-the-island ride when he was struck by a white SUV along Kamehameha Highway near Wheeler Army Airfield at 11:10 p.m. Friday. He was pronounced dead at Wahiawa General Hospital.

Manago was riding north along the shoulder of the highway a half-mile south of Leilehua Golf Course Road when he was hit from behind.

Jon Manago, Zachary’s uncle, said of the arrest: "I’m just really more worried about our family. I’m sure that person—I kind of feel sorry for him, too, because his life has changed, too.

"I don’t know the circumstances," he said. "I know, however, that what he is feeling is really, really terrible.

"I’m very happy, if it is him, that he was caught," Manago added. "He has to be responsible for his actions."

Manago described his nephew as "very quiet" and "always really nice."

Despite his success in baseball at Moanalua High School, where he was a star pitcher, and his "potential to grow" in his first season on the HPU team, "he was just really humble," his uncle said.

Manago made the OIA Eastern Division’s coaches all-star team the last two years at Moanalua.

The HPU team was scheduled to begin practice in a few weeks.

Manago’s immediate family declined to comment last night on the arrest.

Amy Manago said, "He was so special and it was so sudden. We’re all having a very, very hard time. We’re really trying to hold it together."

She said what has helped is hearing from his friends.

"Zach had so many friends," she said. "They’ve been telling how special he was, how caring and kind, sharing little instances. That’s kept us going."

She said she and her husband, Jon, were looking forward to Zachary and their son, Keoni, who plays for the University of Hawaii at Hilo, playing against each other this season.

Moanalua High contemporary Kahealani Enoka was one of many friends of Zachary Manago who mourned his loss.

He was "someone you could talk to," Enoka said. "It would make you feel he knew what you were thinking … like you were understood."