Man killed on dark stretch of Refugee Road

A man trying to cross a busy stretch of Refugee Road before dawn Saturday died after he was struck by three vehicles, Columbus police said. Only two of the three drivers stopped.

Police said they have no description of the vehicle or of the driver who left the Southeast Side scene. Police were withholding the victim’s identity Saturday evening pending the notification of relatives.

Sgt. Brooke Wilson of the police division’s Accident Investigation Unit said the man was not in a crosswalk just after 6 a.m. as he crossed Refugee Road, between Tennyson Boulevard and Citizens Place, from the north side to the south.

The first vehicle that struck the man was westbound on Refugee Road and driven by 54-year-old Munjed Hinnawi, who stayed at the scene to talk to investigators. The impact threw the man into the eastbound lanes, where he was hit by two more passing vehicles. The second vehicle to hit the man is the one that continued on, police said.

The third vehicle was driven by 53-year-old Cheryl Flowers.

That area near the Citizens Place intersection bustles with foot traffic almost every minute of the day. There is no traffic light or crosswalk there and people from the neighborhood, and especially coming from Aston Villa apartment complex, say that going up to the light at Tennyson Boulevard is too far. So they regularly dart across the street to get to the nearby stores and businesses such as Kroger, Family Dollar and Cashland.

Saturday morning was no different, with people jaywalking even as officers sat in their cruisers nearby. Small groups of people huddled in parking lots and shook their heads as they discussed the body covered by a sheet practically in the middle of the street in the 4500 block of Refugee Road, near a Midas muffler shop.

Several people who live in the neighborhood said Saturday that they would never try to cross Refugee Road near Citizens Place after dark.

“This is so dangerous here. Dangerous,” said Henry Falls, as he stood on the corner with others in the Cashland parking lot.

“It’s so dark,” he said. “It’s like you’re an invisible person.”