It seems the key to solving Jyquez Evans’ death might be finding the dirt bike he was riding just before he crashed into a truck.
Someone jumped on the 13-year-old Forest Park Middle School student’s bike and drove away after he crashed it.
Now, his family thinks thieves targeted him for the bike.
Evans died Wednesday, less than 24 hours after police said a Freightliner turning onto Moreland Avenue from Henrico Road hit him. Evans was hit as he tried to run a red light, according to a DeKalb County police report. The Freightliner driver, Danshell Richardson of East Point, was not injured, police said.
People were tending to the boy, who suffered critical head injuries and was later rushed to Grady Memorial Hospital, when a man hopped on the bike and took off, witness Paul Pacchioli told police.
“Whose to say (the thief) didn’t bump his back wheel,” mother Shatara Churn told Channel 2 Action News. “They might have wanted it that bad. That’s the way they had to get it from him.”
She said her son was with older siblings when he left on the bike without anyone knowing.
Phillip Colvin, another witness, told Channel 2 he chased the person who took the bike and snapped several photos he later sent to police.
"I saw him laying there,” Colvin said. “I look up and I see the other guy starting the dirt bike as that poor kid was on the ground hurt, and he just got on it like it was nothing and started going down the road.”
It’s unclear if the man who drove off on the bike stole it or knew the owner.
The bike is part of the police investigation, DeKalb police spokesman Maj. Stephen Fore told the television station.
“We are interested in recovering the motorcycle as well as the person who removed it,” he said.
Police said they don’t have any evidence Evans was targeted.
Evans’ twin brother Tyrez told Channel 2 going back to school Jan. 3 will feel different.
“When I walk through the hallway I would see him talk some junk and run,” he said, “but now I’m not going to see that.”
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