There are multiple levels of erratic behavior. First, there’s the basic kind, and then there’s the kind of weirdness that cost an unidentified man his life on Roosevelt Boulevard on Monday night.
Shortly after 8 p.m., the so-called “John Doe” ran out into the middle of the southbound outer lanes near Harbison Avenue wearing only his underwear. Witnesses said he was flailing his arms and singing just before a 2003 Chevy Tahoe SUV struck him. The impact launched the victim into the inner southbound lanes, where a 2009 Volkswagen CC sedan also struck him, police said. Multiple news reports stated that other vehicles may have hit the prone victim, too.
Paramedics took the man to Aria Health’s Torresdale campus, where he was pronounced dead at 9:50 p.m.
“The behavior that he was displaying — the fact that he was in just his underwear, it’s the winter time and he’s running along the Boulevard waving his arms wildly in the air, singing loudly — there’s a very good possibility this individual was suffering from mental health issues,” Philadelphia police Chief Inspector Scott Small said at the scene.
A woman, 33, was driving the Chevy while a man, 36, was driving the Volkswagen. They were not injured, police said. Authorities described the unidentified victim as black and in his 30s. ••
