Missing dirt bike could help solve death of boy, 13

Man rode motorcycle away from scene where truck struck teen.

The key to solving a 13-year-old boy’s death might be in finding the dirt bike he was riding just before he crashed into a truck.

Someone jumped on Jyquez Evans’ bike and drove away after he crashed it.

Evans died Wednesday, less than 24 hours after police said a Freightliner truck turning onto Moreland Avenue from Henrico Road hit him. Evans was struck as he tried to run a red light, according to a DeKalb County police report. The Freightliner driver, Danshell Richardson of East Point, was not injured, police said.

People were tending to the boy, who suffered critical head injuries and was later rushed to Grady Memorial Hospital, when a man hopped on the bike and took off, witness Paul Pacchioli told police.

Phillip Colvin, another witness, told Channel 2 Action News he chased the person who took the bike and snapped several photos he later sent to police.

“I saw him laying there,” Colvin said. “I look up and I see the other guy starting the dirt bike as that poor kid was on the ground

hurt, and he just got on it like it was nothing and started going down the road.”

It’s unclear if the man who drove off on the bike stole it or knew the owner.

Evans’ mother, Shatara Churn, thinks thieves targeted her son for his bike.

“Who’s to say (a thief ) didn’t bump his back wheel,” Churn told Channel 2. “They might have wanted it that bad. That’s the way they had to get it from him.”

She said her son was with older siblings when he left on the bike without anyone knowing.

Police said they don’t have any evidence Evans was targeted.

The bike is part of the police investigation, DeKalb police spokesman Maj. Stephen Fore told Channel 2.

“We are interested in recovering the motorcycle as well as the person who removed it,” he said.

Jyquez Evans was a student at Forest Park Middle School. His twin, Tyrez, told Channel 2 that school will feel different without his brother there.

“When I (would) walk through the hallway, I would see him, talk some junk and run,” he said. “But now I’m not going to see that.”

CHANNEL 2 ACTION NEWS Jyquez Evans tried to run a red light on his dirt bike before being hit by a truck, police say.