Police are searching for a hit-and-run driver who struck a bicyclist who initially declined medical attention after the Humboldt Park crash, then died three days later after suffering a brain hemorrhage.
Rick Lomas, 31, a British citizen who friends say moved to Logan Square years ago with his wife, was cycling south on California Avenue about 1:50 a.m. May 7 when a westbound driver struck him on Augusta Avenue and kept on going, according to a Chicago police traffic report.
When officers arrived, Lomas was in an ambulance declining medical treatment, the report states. The officer noted that Lomas, who did not give his name to police, was bleeding from his head and side.
After he went home, Lomas suffered a brain hemorrhage and was hospitalized, his friend Abigail Clough wrote in an online fundraiser.
He died three days later, on May 10, with his wife by his side, Clough wrote.
A witness of the crash gave police a license plate number of a gray Pontiac Grand Prix, according to the traffic report.
No arrests have been made, a police spokesman said Thursday.
The crash report says Lomas rode through a red light before he was hit.
But his family’s attorney, Mike Keating, told the Sun-Times that surveillance video from a business doesn’t show that detail — nor does the police report list a witness who saw that.
“I would encourage the public not to rush to judgment,” Keating told WGN Channel 9 Wednesday.
Keating told the Sun-Times he has requested video from a city-owned camera at the intersection that could show more details of the crash.
Supporters have rallied behind Lomas’ family, donating more than $22,000 for medical expenses in the online fundraiser.
Lomas, a British citizen, had moved to Logan Square with his wife years earlier and worked on home improvement projects in the neighborhood while he worked to get his U.S. citizenship, Clough wrote on Facebook.
His wife wrote on Facebook that Lomas “was one in a billion. He was the definition of a family man.”
“I don’t know how to even explain how much we both loved each other. Rick was my husband, my best friend, my soul mate, my twin flame, my family, my world,” Zena Lomas wrote.
Her husband was a thoughtful and gentle teacher “that really allowed you to understand and learn,” she wrote.
He was also a jokester, she said. “I don’t know if there was ever a night that we weren’t giggling like little kids.”
“When I met him, I honestly was dumbfounded about how a person like him could actually exist,” Zena Lomas wrote. “He was so incredibly handsome and had the most amazing personality. I am honestly just so honored to have been his wife. I was so proud to tell anyone, yeah, that’s my husband.”
Rick Lomas’ death is the first bicycle fatality in Chicago this year, according to a spokesperson for the Chicago Department of Transportation.
