COEUR d'ALENE - A common old saying goes: "With friends like these, who needs enemies?"

Coeur d'Alene police are searching for a 21-year-old Post Falls man who is believed to be the person who ran into a pedestrian and fled the scene early Sunday.

A warrant has been issued for Thomas L. Lang, charging him with aggravated DUI and felony hit-and-run, Coeur d'Alene police said Friday in a press release.

Police said Lang was close friends with the victim, 22-year-old Jessica White of Coeur d'Alene. Police also said White and several of her friends knew who struck her, but failed to report it.

The hit-and-run incident occurred at 1 a.m. Sunday at Second Street and Lakeside Avenue, police said.

White told The Press Friday that Lang is a friend who had allegedly been drinking heavily Saturday night and Sunday morning.

White said Lang had been driving on Lakeside in a maroon Toyota pickup truck, when he stopped at the intersection of Second Street.

Because he was allegedly heavily intoxicated, she attempted to get him to pull over and stop driving.

White said Lang told her to get out of the way, took off, and struck her in the process, leaving her lying in the roadway.

Following the incident, she was hospitalized at Kootenai Medical Center. She said she has three broken vertebrae in her lower back.

To protect Lang from authorities, she said she didn't tell police who had been driving and struck her.

Lang has been friends with White's husband since grade school, she said.

Sgt. Christie Wood, with the Coeur d'Alene Police Department, said White and several of her friends knew who struck her, but failed to tell police.

White said, "It was an accident, and he didn't know he hit me."

She said if Lang had known, he would have stopped.

"He was very intoxicated, and I was trying to stop him from driving," she said.

In addition to the broken vertebrae, she has bruising on her body and a cut on her right side.

She said a doctor told her it's too early to know if there will be long-term damage to her back.

White said Lang on Monday stopped by to see her and told her he was really sorry about what happened, and that he would take care of her medical bills and get her anything else she needed.

She hasn't heard from him since, she said.