JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A 35-year-old man was struck and killed by a pickup truck on North Main Street near Pecan Park Road late Friday night, and the Florida Highway Patrol said that pickup left the scene.
Richard Allen Wilson Jr. was walking north on the right shoulder of North Main Street at Kirk Road at 11:40 p.m. when a dark blue 2014 Ford F-150 left the road for an unknown reason and hit him. Wilson died at the scene.
Troopers said the driver of the truck did not stop and continued to drive north. As investigators were canvassing the area, they found the truck abandoned nearby. The FHP will trace ownership records to try and identify who was driving and press charges.
Wilson was supposed to start a new job next Monday. His family wants to know who hit him and why the driver didn't stop to help their dying loved one.
"He was a good guy," Diane Byrd said. "What happened to him last night was totally uncalled for. It was not necessary to take his life like that, and not to stop and leave him on the side of the road."
"He was very nice," Antonio Rodriguez said. "I just want him to come back."
Dylan Baumgardner saw his uncle a day before the deadly hit-and-run.
"Yesterday, he was over here. We were just talking, and he told me he was about to start a new job, doing better. It's going to change his life for him," Baumgardner said. "He is my favorite uncle."
Wilson was a tattoo artist and thought his new job would help him save money to one day own his own tattoo business.
Now that Wilson is gone, his mother has one request.
"Whoever did this, please come forward. Please," Mary Willoughby said. "It wasn't right for you to do this."
Anyone with information about the hit-and-run is asked to call police or Crime Stoppers.