Crime & Safety
Police Seek Witnesses After Berkeley Cyclist Killed Near Campus
Police ask anyone who may have witnessed Friday's fatal crash in downtown Berkeley to call the Berkeley Police Department's non-emergency line at 510-981-5900.
Police are looking for witnesses to a crash in downtown Berkeley on Friday that killed a local cyclist.
Around 3:40 p.m., police received a report that a cyclist had been injured at Bancroft Way and Fulton Street, said Sgt. Mary Kusmiss of the Berkeley Police Department.
Kusmiss said a group of community members found the cyclist, who was wearing a helmet, lying in the roadway on Bancroft west of Fulton.
Find out what's happening in Albanywith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Bystanders flagged down two EMTs passing by in an ambulance to administer CPR until police and firefighters arrived. Berkeley Fire Department paramedics then tended to the cyclist.
The man, identified as a 65- or 66-year-old Berkeley resident on his way home from work, was taken by ambulance to Highland Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Find out what's happening in Albanywith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Just after the accident, a Good Samaritan pursued a man driving a white dump truck that some community members believed may have been involved in the collision, and got him to return to the scene.
The drump truck driver told police he was not aware that anything had happened, and cooperated fully with the police investigation, said Kusmiss. As of 8 p.m. Friday, police were not planning to take the man into custody.
Friday night, Berkeley's Fatal Accident Investigation Team had closed off Durant between Fulton and Shattuck Avenue to collect evidence.
Kusmiss said police had obtained videos from nearby surveillance cameras and would use them to look for details about the crash.
She said police are eager to find answers to what happened to the cyclist, and ask any community members who may have seen the crash on Friday to call the Berkeley Police Department's non-emergency line at 510-981-5900.
Kusmiss said, unlike in many crashes where witnesses are available to share details with police about exactly what happened, no one had come forward who had seen the cyclist get hit.
Kusmiss said the man's closest family member had been notified, and she had requested that police hold off on releasing his identify pending notification of out-of-town relatives.
If there's something in this article you think , or if something else is amiss, call editor Emilie Raguso at 510-459-8325 or email her at albany@patch.com.
