MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WKRN) – Murfreesboro police have a mystery on their hands, trying to figure out if a bicycle rider was hurt by a hit-and-run driver or if he had a terrible fall on his bike.
Police apparently weren’t called when the accident that happened on May 21, and now the department’s Fatal Accident Crash Team (FACT) is investigating the 58-year-old man’s death.
Clarence Robinson Jr., or Robbie as family calls him, was celebrating his birthday when he decided to go on a late evening bike ride. It was then a hit-and-run driver allegedly struck his bicycle, sending him tumbling to the pavement on South Church Street near Bojangles in Murfreesboro around 11 p.m.
“His wife asked him, ‘Robbie, what happened to you? Was it a bike wreck or did someone hit you?’ and he said car, and then he put his hand on his head and said, ‘all man,’” the victim’s sister Judy King said. “It’s a dangerous highway, I know so many people that have been killed out there. There is no bike lane and there is hardly any sidewalks.”
King said Robbie called her to pick him up, unaware of his surroundings he eventually was able to figure out where he was and went to a nearby Kroger to wash blood off his face.
His sister told News 2 when she picked her brother up from the grocery store he was still disoriented and really didn’t know the extent of his injuries, and that’s why he probably didn’t call police.
“In the case where you know someone who’s been involved in an accident, it’s important that you notify police immediately,” said Murfreesboro police spokesman Sgt. Kyle Evans. “The longer you wait, it significantly reduces the likelihood of us successfully finding out who is responsible and holding them accountable.”
King took her brother home to his wife when they noticed large knots on his head.
Robinson suffered a severe brain injury and received treatment at St. Thomas Rutherford and Vanderbilt University Medical Center before being placed in Hospice care where he died nine days later.
“I hope to God he finds who hit my brother and kept going because they should have stopped,” King said.
Police are asking for help from the public to help figure out what happened.
“Anyone that may have seen anything in the area should call law enforcement – whether you saw someone riding a bicycle or whether you actually saw the accident,” Evans said.
King also contends she attempted to file a report with police by phone with no success and later went to police headquarters.
She wrote on Facebook, “I thought the guy was writing up the report, and then I took the bike there another day and I wanted the city police to come out and look at his bike and they said no need to look at the bike. It’s too late, you waited too long,” King said.
Police are looking into those claims, but their main priority is figuring out what actually happened.
“We have the evidence of the deceased and we have his bicycle, but we don’t know exactly where it occurred and we don’t have a point of impact, so it will be very difficult for investigators to go back and piece everything together at this point,” Evans said.
Anyone with information is urged to call Murfreesboro police at 615-893-STOP.
*Courtesy Of News WKRN-TV Nashville*
