On an unusually warm November Saturday, Thomas Malloy got on his bicycle for his five-mile ride from his Minneapolis home to a Jewish sabbath observance in St. Paul. He never made it.
Malloy, 61, was killed when he was struck by a pickup truck in a hit-and-run accident. Nine hours later, the suspected driver turned himself in, and now Wesley Gubbin, 27, of Minneapolis, has been charged with criminal vehicular homicide.
Malloy's nephew, Michael Buller, 28, remembered his uncle as an avid cyclist who grew up near Kenyon, Minn., and had worked as an electrician. Malloy, who was single, loved living in the Phillips neighborhood.
Buller said that he "debated a lot" with his uncle, a Messianic Jew. "We ... stayed up late one evening debating the Bible and all the things it had to say."
Malloy apparently was crossing the intersection of Franklin Avenue and West River Parkway, heading east, when he was struck by the northbound pickup sometime around 11 a.m., police said.
According to the criminal complaint, a driver heading north on the parkway said he saw Gubbin's pickup speed past him on the left. The pickup then hit Malloy on his bike and never slowed down.
Another motorist said the pickup tailgated him before passing three vehicles and then hitting Malloy, according to the complaint.
According to the criminal complaint, Gubbin acknowledged to police that he was passing vehicles on the parkway before hitting the bicyclist and then fled the scene. "The defendant claimed he did not know what to do and just kept driving," the complaint read.
