Logan Square Cyclist Hit-and-Run: Victim Recovering, Driver Still At Large

A Logan Square restaurant worker is recovering from a hit-and-run crash that left him bruised, stitched up and without a bike, and he says he wants the driver who hit him and drove away found and charged.

Connor Brogan, 35, was riding his bike east on Armitage Avenue the evening of July 2 on his way to his job at Dante's Pizzeria when a driver in a dark green Jeep pickup truck turning from Armitage onto Kedzie Boulevard struck him, according to police and surveillance footage of the crash. Brogan said he was moving through a green light at Kedzie when he caught sight of the Jeep heading toward him. After that, he doesn't remember much.

"I don't remember these flips and being left in the street," Brogan said this week. "I am lucky that I don't remember the most traumatic part of it."

He woke up on the ground surrounded by bystanders. Witnesses and still images pulled from surveillance video at the nearby Scofflaw bar show the Jeep making the left turn and hitting Brogan, sending him off his bike and onto the median. The Jeep drove off with Brogan's bike still caught underneath it.

Brogan filed a police report documenting the crash and confirming the driver left the scene. He said he plans to press charges if the driver is identified and caught.

Surveillance images show the driver looking toward Brogan as he lay face-down in the street with the bike lodged beneath the vehicle. Brogan said that detail is what bothers him most.

"That is really frustrating," he said. "Leaving me is a different scenario" than stopping and calling 911, which Illinois law requires drivers involved in a crash to do.

Brogan suffered road rash, bruising and a leg injury that required stitches. He avoided broken bones and head trauma, which he said he recognizes could have gone much worse. He's been out of work for a week since the crash.

Brogan's recovery is complicated by his lack of health insurance. He was recently let go from a job that provided coverage and now works two part-time jobs to get by. The emergency room visit included a CT scan to rule out internal bleeding, stitches for his leg wound and additional testing to check for infection, on top of follow-up appointments still ahead of him.

His friend John Hopkins set up a GoFundMe campaign to help cover those costs, and it had raised more than $5,000 within a week of the crash.

"He's always had my back and when I've needed him, he's been there," Hopkins said. "It hurts your heart to see someone so nice, so caring and selfless to be left in the dust."

Brogan said the response from friends and coworkers in Chicago's restaurant industry has been overwhelming, with people donating to the fundraiser and checking in on him throughout his recovery. He said the money raised will go toward his medical bills first, with anything left over put toward a new bike, since it's his primary way of getting around the city.

He doesn't intend to keep whatever is left after that. Brogan said he plans to pass along any additional donations to a friend, a bartender in Logan Square and a single mother, who is preparing for breast cancer surgery.

"I will gladly pay it forward," he said.

As of this week, police had not identified the driver of the Jeep. Brogan said he is hoping the surveillance images and his police report help investigators find the person responsible. He has follow-up medical appointments scheduled in the coming weeks, and the GoFundMe campaign remains open for people looking to help cover costs his lost wages and lack of insurance won't.