Bristol Township police are searching for the driver in an apparent hit-and-run in a McDonald’s parking lot

A Bucks County man was struck and killed in an apparent hit-and-run outside a McDonald’s in Bristol Township, officials said Monday.

But prosecutors are not ruling out the possibility that the driver responsible may have been acting in self-defense during an argument with the man who was struck, according to District Attorney Matt Weintraub. And if that bears out, the driver would not face criminal charges, he said.

Still, Weintraub urged the driver — and anyone else with information about the incident — to come forward.

“This is already a tragedy, but I would hate to have it compounded by letting it remain a mystery,” Weintraub said.

Jason Smith, 47, pulled into the McDonald’s on Bristol Pike just after 4 p.m. Sunday, Weintraub said. Almost immediately afterward, he said, a silver pickup truck — believed to be a 2013 Chevrolet Silverado — backed into a parking spot nearby.

Smith walked toward the truck, he said, carrying what police believe was a carpenter’s hammer. The driver of the truck then pulled out of the spot, struck Smith, and kept going without stopping, leaving the parking lot of the fast-food restaurant and heading northeast toward Tullytown, according to Weintraub.

Smith was taken by medics to Jefferson Torresdale Medical Center, where he was later pronounced dead.

Given the circumstances, Weintraub said, “this could theoretically be a justifiable homicide. That’s why we need to fill in all of the blanks, and understand the circumstances that have occurred.”

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call Bristol Township police at 267-812-3056.