EVANSVILLE – The Vanderburgh County Coroner’s office has identified the man police say was struck and killed after apparently stopping his vehicle along Interstate 69 Saturday.
According to a Monday morning news release, 32-year-old Dennis Copeland of Appling, Georgia, died on scene in the southbound lanes of I-69 after being hit by a car near the Lloyd Expressway exit.
An autopsy was scheduled for later in the day.
Evansville police spokeswoman Taylor Merriss expounded on the incident in a subsequent release of her own. She said police were dispatched to the scene “in the early morning hours” on Saturday and “discovered a male victim lying in the roadway, with four vehicles stopped on the shoulder.”
“One of the drivers stopped after striking the pedestrian,” the release states, “while two other vehicles had inadvertently driven over the victim, unaware he was in the roadway.”
Police eventually found a truck registered to Copeland idling nearby. Merriss said “initial findings suggest” he had pulled over and gotten out of the truck to urinate on the shoulder of the road.
At some point, he allegedly crossed the median. That’s when the vehicle reportedly struck him.
EPD didn’t name any of the other drivers in the release. Per standard procedure, the person who first hit Copeland was taken to the hospital for a blood draw, but it’s unclear if any charges will be filed. No arrests had been made as of Monday morning.
The investigation is ongoing, Merriss said.
This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Man struck and killed along Interstate 69 in Evansville identified