COLONIAL HEIGHTS, Va. -- Neighbors in Colonial Heights are trying to piece together what happened to a well-known homeless man now hospitalized with serious injuries and multiple broken bones.
While many people do not know his name, the man may be one of the most recognizable people in Colonial Heights. He is typically seen walking in the same area up and down the Boulevard, especially the Southend.
“He’s just a wanderer. He just wanders all day,” Paul Randazzo with Vincenzo's Italian Restaurant said. “Anybody who comes up and down the Boulevard has seen him at some point.”
While many have not spoken to the 33-year-old, those who know Timmy understand that he is homeless and suffers from untreated mental illness, according to his friend, Wanda Ward.
“He just walks around and sometimes it seems he's having a little conversation with himself,” Randazzo said.
While some tend to shy away from Timmy, others quickly defend him.
Lisa Fee, who works at Southpark Carpet, said she first saw Timmy roughly three years ago.
“No, he does not ask for anything,” Fee said. “It’s always offered to him and he will accept it but he doesn’t go around bumming or asking.”
So when word began to spread that Timmy had been seriously injured in a hit-and-run crash on Tuesday, there was an outpouring of concern after Ward posted on social media about her friend.
“This morning when I got up to see, it’s close to 800 shares and 300 reactions,” Ward noted.
Friends said Timmy felt safe behind the 7-Eleven on the Boulevard when the unimaginable happened.
“We do believe that the victim was laying with a blanket behind the 7-Eleven parking lot and when a vehicle went around the business,” Sgt. Desiree McCurry with Colonial Heights Police said. “We don’t know if it was intentional, but he did run over the pedestrian [Timmy] that was lying down.”
Police said that is where he was seriously injured and suffered multiple broken bones. At last check, officials said he was in stable condition.
Fee called the news heartbreaking because Timmy is “such a good person.”
“Timmy already had so many challenges against him out here,” Ward said. “Now he’s going to have many more challenges ahead of him.”
Ward said she was positively surprised by hundreds of comments.
“I think that says a lot about our community,” Ward said. “People do think a lot of Timmy.”
Colonial Heights Police asked anyone along the Boulevard who saw anything suspicious near the 7-Eleven or a vehicle speeding away on Nov. 12 between 1 to 2 a.m. to call Crime Solvers at 804-748-0660.
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