A Juneau man died in a Seattle hospital after a City and Borough of Juneau employee driving a city-owned truck struck him as he was lying in the drive-through lane of a bank in the Mendenhall Valley, police and city officials said.
Police identified the man who died as 38-year-old Armando Sanchez. The incident happened early in the morning of June 1 at True North Federal Credit Union on Postal Way.
Juneau Police Department spokesperson Erann Kalwara said the driver told police he did not realize Sanchez was there on the ground when the front bumper and tire struck him.
“The man who was operating the Chevy truck, we found that he was not impaired, he was not injured,” she said. “There was no relationship between the person who was struck by the truck and the person who was operating the truck.”
Immediately after the incident, Sanchez could sit up and talk and had some abrasions on his back, according to police. He was brought to Bartlett Regional Hospital that day and was later medevaced to Seattle for further treatment.
Police said they learned Sanchez had died on Tuesday. Kalwara said she did not immediately know what day he died and or if his death was due to injuries from the collision.
“We’re going to be waiting for autopsy results. So there’s a variety of information that we’re still collecting to help with the investigation to determine with some finality what occurred,” she said.
The city employee driving the truck has not been identified by police and has not been charged. City Manager Katie Koester told KTOO that the city is conducting an internal investigation of the incident.
Kalwara said the police are also continuing to investigate what happened.
