Another pedestrian killed. This is really sad and the fourth within the past few months.

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

A Beltzhoover man said he knew what he had to do when he learned his son had fled the scene after his car allegedly struck and killed a pedestrian Monday afternoon in the city’s Mt. Oliver section.

“We drove him back because it was the right thing to do,” Leon Hudson said after he turned his son, Lerico Morgan, 20, over to police. “He shouldn’t have left.”

Raymond Jones, 51, who lived in the neighborhood, was pronounced dead at the scene in the 500 block of St. Joseph Street shortly after the 3 p.m. accident, a spokeswoman for the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office said.

Hudson said he got a call from his son, who told him that somebody had driven him to the nearby St. Clair Village public housing project after the accident.

Hudson said he then picked up Morgan and brought him back to the scene of the accident, where Morgan was placed in a patrol car until paramedics arrived and took him to a hospital to be checked for shoulder pain.

Hudson said his son has never been in trouble before and recently was informed that he would be hired full time by the U.S. Postal Service, where he had been working part time. Morgan also did some work at the youth recreation center at St. Clair Village, his father said.

Pittsburgh police Sgt. Robert Jurich said Morgan faces multiple charges.

Jack Kircher, who was driving along St. Joseph Street when he witnessed the accident, told police a man was struck from behind by a red Chevrolet Monte Carlo, which ended up in a front yard.

“The car was coming down the street pretty fast and swerved to the right and went up on the sidewalk,” Kircher said. “Then the car spun across the road and hit a pickup truck, then hit the guy from behind. I really don’t think the guy saw what happened to him.”

Kircher and another motorist tried to help Jones, who was lying face down in the snow about 20 feet from where he was struck. He appeared to have a head injury, Kircher said.

“He lifted his head for a second but didn’t say anything,” Kircher said. “Then he just stopped breathing and died.”

Morgan got out of the car after the accident and said, ‘It was out of control. It was out of control,'” Kircher said. A few moments later, a red Chevrolet Blazer stopped on St. Joseph Street. Morgan went over to the SUV and spoke briefly with the driver and got into the passenger seat, and the vehicle drove off, Kircher said.

Several neighbors said they only knew the victim as “Mr. Ray.”

“We saw him walking up and down the streets here a lot,” said Donte Anger, who lives at the corner of St. Joseph and Ormsby streets. “He seemed very nice, always saying hello to everybody.”

Tony LaRussa can be reached at tlarussa@tribweb.com.
By Tony LaRussa
TRIBUNE-REVIEW