Relatives seek answers in man's death on beach

VIRGINIA BEACH

Family and friends of the homeless man run over and killed last week by a city trash truck gathered at the site of the accident on Monday to publicly question the investigation and presented a photograph they said shows the victim just before he was hit.

The Virginia Beach commonwealth's attorney's office did not charge the driver with criminal conduct in the death of Michael Knockett, 52, who was sleeping in a beach chair around 8 a.m. June 28.

"It's just not adding up," said DeShawn Tatem, a Chesapeake pastor who was raised by Knockett. "It was broad daylight. Nothing was blocking the view. There was no reason for it to happen."

Tatem made his comments on the beach at 25th Street near where Knockett was killed. Fourteen of Knockett's friends and family members stood behind Tatem holding signs that said, "We want justice," "Is the investigation really over?" and "We are his family."

Attached to the signs were copies of a photograph of a man in jeans and a brown shirt partially covered in a blue blanket sleeping in a colorful beach chair.

Joan Veronie, a 57-year-old tourist from Topeka, Kan., who was on a morning walk with her sister, took the photo minutes before Knockett was killed.

"We just walked along the beach and clicked pictures," she said when reached at home Monday night. "We take pictures of everything. It was just kind of unusual that he was sitting there in the chair with the blanket."

Veronie said the picture was taken at 7:56 a.m., according to her digital camera.

Police said the first call for the accident came at 8:03 a.m.

Veronie's sister, Linda Selbach, 58, also took a picture of the man in the chair.

"We liked his bright blanket and his striped chair," she said.

City officials said last week that Knockett was seated in a "depressed" area of the beach, a claim the photograph doesn't appear to support.

Commonwealth's Attorney Harvey Bryant said in an interview last week that the driver didn't see Knockett. He said she was looking at trash cans and two city workers walking alongside the truck and that she hit Knockett when she turned to the right to inspect a cooler to see if it was trash.

Officials have not named the driver.

"It's a shame," Bryant said. "It's a tragedy, but I would have come to the same conclusion if the person in that chair were Will Sessoms." Sessoms is the mayor of Virginia Beach.

In the news release from Bryant's office that announced the driver would not be charged, he said, "The law requires specific elements which must be met before criminal charges should be brought. Criminal cases must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt. Negligence is not a crime, although it may be the basis for civil liability... Whether civil liability exists is not something my office determines..."

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