A hit-and-run that killed an Oakland man next to Lake Merritt led to further anguish, as his neurodivergent son and wife were left to fend for themselves for two weeks with a limited supply of food, according to relatives who spoke with The Oaklandside.
Karen McElroy, the niece of Eugene Lynch, the 81-year-old Oakland hills resident who was struck on Oct. 3 in a crosswalk near Lake Merritt, said Lynch was the main caretaker for his wife and son. He did everything for them, from shopping and cooking to helping with personal hygiene, she told the newsroom. His wife has dementia and his son has autism. A former baker at Safeway who worked for the company for about 40 years, Lynch volunteered for the God's Resting Place food bank, his niece said. This account is a follow-up to earlier reporting that a 22-year-old driver later surrendered and was identified by police as Abdullah Mohamed.
In the days after the collision, Oakland police provided a few details but withheld the victim's name, as authorities usually do until they notify next of kin, The Oaklandside reported. Relatives said officials later indicated they had tried to contact the family twice at the primary home, knocking and leaving a card at the front door. A relative identified as Jackson said the coroner's office told them that Lynch had identification on him when he was hit, including his driver's license and his Kaiser Permanente insurance card. "If they would have contacted Kaiser, they would have seen that Eugene's wife was on that policy," Jackson said. The Oaklandside said it had reached out to the coroner's office and OPD to ask what efforts each department made to identify and contact members of Lynch's family during the two weeks after he was killed. Neither office immediately responded.