Dump truck kills homeless man asleep on beach

VIRGINIA BEACH

Just after 8 a.m. on Monday, a homeless man sleeping in a chair on the beach at 25th Street was run over and killed by an 18,000-pound city dump truck collecting trash.

The driver didn't see him, Deputy City Manager Dave Hansen said. He said the chair was sitting in a "depressed area" of the beach.

"They rolled over him and didn't realize until a tourist witness ran down the beach to notify them," he said.

No charges have been filed against the driver, whom police have not named, and the investigation continues, said Police Department spokesman Adam Bernstein.

A city ordinance prohibits sleeping on the beach from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m.

The man killed, known as "Gray Wolf," was the court jester of the Oceanfront's homeless community. He ribbed tourists and would talk your ear off, but mostly he loved to drink and dance. He was a fixture at free outdoor concerts, his skinny frame shaking to the music. He partied for the last time Sunday night to a Crosby, Stills and Nash cover band at the 24th Street stage before falling asleep on the beach.

His real name is Michael Knockett, 52.

City crews working from four dump trucks empty trash cans on the beach every morning, working from dawn until about 10 a.m., said Jason Cosby, director of public works. Officials could not recall a similar deadly accident. Last summer, a lifeguard truck ran over a sunbather's neck and torso.

Beach truck drivers are required to have a commercial driver's license and have city training and they are instructed to go a maximum of 2 miles per hour, said Drew Lankford, spokesman for the public works department.

Despite warm weather, the summertime presents a challenge for the homeless, advocates said. A city program that places people with churches for overnight stays during cold-weather months ends in April. Weekly rates at cheap hotels, which are affordable in the winter, become too expensive in the summer.

The Oceanfront's only overnight facility for the homeless, the Judeo-Christian Outreach Center, has a waiting list of three to four months for its six-month program, said Tony Zontini, associate director.

"There's not a safe place to sleep," said Dallas Stamper, who runs a Beach homeless ministry. "The city needs shelters down here to help these people."

The beach becomes an obvious choice for sleeping during hot weather for its cool breezes, said some homeless people soaking up air conditioning at The Lighthouse Center, the city's day shelter at the Oceanfront. One strategy, they said, is to sleep close to the boardwalk wall because trucks and sand groomers must avoid hitting it.

Knockett was sleeping near the middle of the beach not far from a trio of garbage cans.

Some homeless people near the site of the accident on Monday couldn't understand how it happened.

"I just can't see how somebody in a dump truck could have come up on him," said Michele Frey, a homeless woman. "It could've been a kid. It could've been a tourist. This is a tourist city. There's nothing strange about people lying on the beach 24/7."

Crystal Hellman, a Oceanfront bathroom attendant who used to be homeless, said she met Knockett in 2007 when he was living under the Virginia Beach fishing pier off 15th Street.

"All he wanted to do was dance and sing," she said. " People would wave him off or ignore him, but he was a nice guy."

Aaron Applegate, (757) 222-5122, aaron.applegate@pilotonline.com