Friends Of Hit-And-Run Victim Seek Answers
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- The friends of a bicyclist who was left for dead in a North Minneapolis street are pleading for help to find the person who hit him.
Bruce Merrill is now recovering at Hennepin County Medical Center. He was found unconscious last Wednesday night on Lyndale Avenue North, just north of 14th Avenue. The person who hit him left the scene and didn't stop to help.
Now, almost a week following the crash, Minneapolis Police still don't know who hit him. They want anyone with information on the driver to come forward.
"He deserved better than that," said Christopher Kelly, one of Bruce's friends and neighbors. He and his wife own a glass blowing studio in North Minneapolis and live right behind Bruce.
"That's the added nervingness to this, that whoever did it didn't have the standup forthrightness to stop and say, 'That's another human being I just hit,'" said Stacy. "I'm very shocked, very unsettled."
The Kellys miss Bruce's warm smile and conversations in their yards. For now, those times will be put on hold while Bruce recovers in the hospital. His leg got crushed in the crash, among other injuries he suffered.
One man remembers seeing the bike next to Bruce in the street after the crash.
"I went up there. All I seen was a guy laying out. He was laying down," recalled Master Few, whose home backs up to Lyndale Avenue North. "The ambulance was already here when I came out. There were cops, like six or seven cop cars."
Bruce was just a few blocks from home when he got hit. His bicycle was his only way to get around.
"I have a series of neighbors I can rely on. Bruce is one of those neighbors I can rely on," said Stacy. "I'm very concerned about his well-being. I want him to make a recovery to come back and continue being a part of my life."
