Andrew W. Hyde cherished the bright yellow classic convertible that he was driving this week when a car thief struck and killed him at a Minneapolis intersection.
Man killed by stolen Hyundai was driving his cherished '64 Chevy
A fleet of motorcycles and classic cars lined a Minneapolis street Thursday evening to mourn his death.
July 21, 2023 at 2:02AM
"He loved it," Hyde's wife, Kierra Holley, said Thursday. "Maybe it was the drop [top]. He loved it, though."
Holley confirmed that her husband, 55, was driving the 1964 Chevrolet Impala early on Tuesday evening when he was struck by a stolen Hyundai SUV at the corner of Washington and N. 22nd avenues. As Hyde lay in the street dying, police said, the Hyundai driver ran off before officers arrived.
Hyde was taken to HCMC by emergency responders and died there soon afterward, police said. No arrests have been announced, and Holley said police have told her little about the circumstances.
"I don't want to know anything other than they've caught this person," Holley said in a brief telephone interview. She and Hyde have five children and lived in a Minneapolis suburb, Holley said. She said Hyde was self-employed and worked on home repairs.
Holley described her husband as a "good man who was loved by a lot of people."
"He didn't have a bad bone in his body," she said.
A fleet of motorcycles and classic cars lined the sides of N. 21st Avenue on Thursday evening as friends and family mourned Hyde's death. Some were crying as they hugged each other, many holding balloons released soon after as a memorial.
"He was like my big brother," said Deona Griffo. "It's devastating and I'm still numb."
Not long before his death, Hyde was showing another of his classic cars in an auto show. Hyde's friend Sherman Webster said Hyde was always driving around in his prized cars.
"He was real proud one of the cars he had won a trophy," Webster said.
More than 100 people attended the memorial, held outside Cliff N Norm's Bar, which several in attendance said Hyde used to frequent. In the median of Washington Avenue, a bundle of yellow balloons and a teddy bear were tied to a traffic sign.
Webster said he had lunch with Hyde not long before he died, and that he was torn up about the loss since the two had become close friends.
"He embraced me, you only have so many friends who show you real love like that," he said.
Friends and relatives also mourned Hyde's death on social media in postings that more often referred to him by his nickname, "Punky G," than his given name.
"He had a pumpkin head when he was a baby," and the nickname evolved from there, Holley said.
If police capture a suspect, a potential charge would be felony criminal vehicular homicide. To the frustration of some grieving families, sentences for that crime have varied widely based on the facts of each crash and the driver's history. Families and advocates contend the state's justice system is too soft on the most egregious cases.
From 2012 to 2021, 279 people in Minnesota were sentenced for criminal vehicular homicide, according to data from the sentencing guidelines commission. While the average sentence was four years and eight months, 44% received something less than a full prison term. Such decisions could have allowed the convicts to serve a portion of their time in a local jail, or be released to serve it on probation.
Reasons for the lesser punishments vary, from the offender's age to a judge or prosecutor's view that the defendant is truly remorseful and won't do it again, to a recommendation of leniency from the victim's family.
A woman who police say was a passenger in the stolen Hyundai was taken to the hospital and expected to survive her injuries. Police on Thursday identified her as Audrey M. Fercello, 30, of Woodbury.
Anyone with information about the crash is urged to contact CrimeStoppers at 800-222-8477 or CrimeStoppersMN.org.
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