ST. PETERSBURG — Police were investigating a traffic fatality late Wednesday night on Fourth Avenue N near Eighth Street.
Investigators released few details, but witnesses said a man appeared to have been run over after lying in the street. Fourth Avenue was blocked as police investigated. In the street, a body lay covered by a yellow tarp.
The dead man was known to area residents as "Country," said Gary Hadley, 52, who stood at the corner of Fourth Avenue and Eighth Street after the accident. Few people knew the man's real name, but he was a familiar face to many residents, Hadley said.
He was a likable guy, he said, but drank a lot.
"Most of the time he's always with somebody because he likes to share his beer," Hadley said.
Hadley and Emmett Grace, 57, were eating dinner at the nearby People that Love Church and Mission when someone came in and told them the man had been hit by a car.
"He used to come there to eat and watch movies and whatever," Hadley said.
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