Authorities released the identity Monday of the bicyclist who died in a hit-and-run collision over the weekend in Minneapolis, an avid cyclist who was on his way to sabbath worship.
Thomas E. Malloy, 61, of Minneapolis, was identified by the Hennepin County medical examiner’s office as the person who was hit Saturday morning by a pickup truck at E. Franklin Avenue and West River Parkway.
The driver left the scene but turned himself in a little more than nine hours later.
Malloy, a Messianic Jew, was about a third of the way into a 5-mile bike ride to sabbath observance at a house of worship in St. Paul when he was hit late Saturday morning, said nephew Michael Buller.
Buller said that when he was at the scene of the crash Sunday, he found his uncle’s kippah — also known as a yamulke — laying nearby.
“I was glad to find it,” said Buller. “He will be buried with it.”
Malloy “loved to ride his bike,” even though he owned a van, Buller said. “It was a beautiful day, an abnormally warm day [for a bike ride].”
Malloy apparently was crossing the intersection, heading east, when he was struck by the northbound pickup sometime around 11 a.m., police said. He lived about 1.5 miles west of where he was hit.
Police had asked for the public’s help in locating the truck and put out a description of the vehicle and its license plates. Just before 8:30 p.m., the driver turned himself in at police headquarters, police said. He had left the truck in north Minneapolis, and police recovered it.
The suspect, who remains in the Hennepin County jail, is a 27-year-old man from northeast Minneapolis. He has a history of trespassing, burglary, drug and traffic offenses, state court and motor-vehicle records show.
Convictions include disorderly conduct in Ramsey County in 2008, operating an off-highway motorcycle in Mille Lacs County in 2005, and second-degree assault in Hennepin County in 2001, when he was 17.
Buller expressed sympathy for the driver and his family, saying, “I honestly have no idea how hard it must be on his family at large. I hope they’ll be able to find peace, and I hope the best for him.
“My uncle lived a full life, and [the driver] has his whole life. . . . It’s not easy for either side.”