On April 22 last year, Film Critic Gary Murray had just crossed the intersection of Mockingbird ln and Central Expressway in Dallas at 10:15 PM when he was hit by a white truck. The truck sped away and there were no witnesses or surveillance images that were able to record the license plate number. In a report by Dallas ABC affiliate WFAA, Gary's best friend said about the hit-and-run wasn't an accident but a crime. In defense of such a chaotic situation, his friend Donald For is quoted as saying: "Witnesses when they see somebody gets hit and fly 50 feet, they worry about the person and not getting a license plate, so it's like how do we solve this?"
Dallas Police have been asking for help from the public who could have information to call the department and use a reference case number 096049-2016.
That intersection generally has plenty of traffic and witnesses since it serves as a travel hub for the city's busiest entertainment and dining spots. But while the authorities try to solve it, Murray's friends and family have become frustrated that after the city has spent years of planning the Mockingbird Pedestrian Bridge that would have put Garry Murray out of harm's way, that it is finally under construction. The WFAA article said that he was the last person to die before the construction of the bridge began. The writer of the article also added the irony that the bridge is the same color as the truck that killed Gary.
Scene of the crime
Dallas film critic, Gary Murray, was killed in a hit and run crash Friday night https://t.co/VqRHovR5Ty pic.twitter.com/I1kKg7Q4Z9
— NBC DFW (@NBCDFW) April 24, 2016
Gary was 53-years-old and was attending the Dallas International Film Festival at the Angelika Theater when the truck ran a red like and struck him.
Some of the reports say that it made a right turn from side road off of central before it hit him. Gary was the founding member of the North Texas Film Critics Association of which he was also the president since 2009, and what the Dallas Film Society referred to as a red-carpet regular who supported the local film culture and filmmakers.
It's been said that Mr. Murray had suffered from complications of diabetes in the year before his death, leading to the amputation of several of his toes and being in and out of the hospital. He apparently walked with a cane but had been improving.
Petition to name pedestrian bridge
Now a petition to name the bridge after Gary is in circulation via Change.org.
The description in the petition page says that fifteen people have been struck in the intersection over the years and the feeling is that the new pedestrian bridge it should carry his name in memoriam. The petition will go to Dallas City Hall and is currently set to reach a goal of 500 signatures. The pedestrian bridge is an extension of the Katy Trail which has been a continuous project since 2006 that allows people to walk, jog and bike through Dallas' densely populated suburbs and urban sprawl of the city, and lined with restaurants and retail shops. The latest development of the bridge is part of the idea and perhaps even rumor that it will extend outside of Dallas.
