Rogers Park skateboarder dies after hit by drunken driver
Posted by loyolastudentdispatch on October 28, 2012
A Rogers Park skateboarder has died after being struck by an alleged drunken driver who fled the scene.
Here is the story from the Chicago Sun-Times:
Skateboarder Reginald “Reggie” Destin called himself the “elder skatesman” and even labeled his Rogers Park mailbox with that moniker, his friends said.
It was while on his skateboard that Destin, 42, was struck by an allegedly drunken driver who fled the scene after the accident. Destin had been hospitalized at Stroger Hospital, but died Saturday, more than a week after he was hit, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office and his family.
On Saturday, just hours after Destin’s death, dozens of people — most of them skateboarders and many of them in tears — gathered at Uprise, a skateboard shop near the scene of the accident. The group of about 50 walked somberly to the 1700 block of North Milwaukee Avenue and placed a white skateboard — similar to a “ghost bike” left as a memorial to a slain bicyclist — at the site where Destin was hit. Flowers, pictures and other mementos were left at the memorial.
On the day before Destin died, skateboarding superstar Tony Hawk took to Twitter to ask his 3.2 million followers to donate to a fund for Destin.
“Reggie Destin, a great advocate of skateboarding & pillar of Chicago, was hit by a drunk driver & needs our help,” Hawk Tweeted.
Destin, who many said was considered an ambassador for the tight-knit Chicago skate scene, brought dozens of people together throughout the years, his friends said.
