Family, friends honor man, 54, killed in crash
Building collapsed in Feb. after being struck by 2 cars
At the dusty site of the now-demolished building that collapsed and killed a pedestrian after being struck by two cars a month earlier, family and friends of Alfred Fincher lit candles, prayed and remembered the 54-year-old demolition worker.
Fincher, the pedestrian who died Feb. 8 after the vacant building on the southeast corner of East North Avenue and North Wolfe Street collapsed, was recalled Wednesday night as a good-hearted, helpful man, as attendees prayed for the justice system to hold those responsible for his death accountable.
La Tina Williamson, the mother of Fincher’s oldest son, drives past the site of the collapsed building every day on her commute to Johns Hopkins Hospital, where she works as a patient services coordinator. On her way to work the day after the crash, Williamson noticed the building was reduced to a pile of rubble. Shortly after, she got the call about Fincher’s death.
A car that was reported stolen and fleeing from police struck another vehicle before striking Fincher and then the building, which collapsed on top of Fincher and the vehicles. Fincher was declared dead at the scene, and five others who were inside the cars were injured. The driver of the Hyundai Sonata, which police said was stolen, was later arrested on vehicle theft charges.
Williamson said she thinks about Fincher every morning when she drives past the building.
“I think about the life that he had, the life that he shared, the person that he was. So when I go to work, I go with a smile on my face,” she said. “I smile, because I know he’s in a better place than we could ever be.”
Williamson said she sees a light in Fincher’s tragic death, as his children, who were mostly separate, have been brought back together.
“Sometimes out of tragedy comes blessings,” Williamson said. “I look at it as a blessing, because now they have each other, they can lean on each other, they can depend on each other, they can talk about their father.”
Fincher, whose family has a background in demolition work, was working odd jobs at the time of his death after spending several years working at Old Dominion Abatement and Demolition.
He had three children and four grandchildren, as well as two more grandchildren — twins, a boy and a girl, on the way.
“He had a very good spirit. Very helpful, he was just a good person,” Williamson said. “He loved his family, especially his mom — he loved his mom.”
Fincher moved in with his sister and mother, Rosa Nichols, when Nichols was aging and bedridden before her death two years ago.
“He had a very good spirit. Very helpful, he was just a good person.”
“He was the one who was really able to physically care for my mom,” said his sister, Georgetta Fincher.
Alfred Fincher’s son said his father was “playground buddies” with his two grandchildren, who are coping with the loss of their grandfather but don’t understand the full circumstances surrounding his death.
“It’s a real roller coaster right now,” Dominic Fincher said. “I just can’t even imagine how it happened.”
The crash that led to Fincher’s death is under investigation by the state Attorney General’s Office’s Independent Investigations Division, which probes fatal encounters with police in Maryland. Last week, the office released body camera and CitiWatch footage showing the police pursuit that preceded the crash and the aftermath.
The footage from officer Devin Yancy’s body camera includes police radio traffic telling officers to “just let it go” as the Sonata, occupied by Shawn Lee Brunson, 33, was fleeing at a high rate of speed. Seconds later, the person says the car crashed into the building. CitiWatch cameras from the intersection show Alfred Fincher walking alone by the vacant building before the car hits another car, then Fincher, then the building, which pours bricks on top of the crash site.
“It hit me hard,” said Dominic Fincher, who just recently watched the footage for the first time.
“I was devastated,” Williamson said. Baltimore-based attorneys Divya Potdar and Thomas Yost are representing Fincher’s family. Yost said the lawyers still are piecing together what happened that night, as the footage does not show how fast Yancy was going or what Yancy was doing after the pursuit was called off.
For now, the family is waiting for the legal process to play out.
“We’re just patiently waiting for justice to be served in his name,” Georgetta Fincher said.