ORANGE COUNTY, FL — Ronald Bear was the kind of man who answered the phone at 5 in the morning when someone needed help. On May 16, that call cost him his life.
Bear, 59, had driven out to a dark Florida highway with two of his relatives to help a 21-year-old woman named Julia Blackwell get her silver pickup unstuck from a muddy ditch. He attached a tow strap, pulled her truck free, and walked over to unhook it — a routine he had probably done dozens of times before.
He never walked away.
Police say that while Bear was still crouching near the front of the truck, Blackwell hit the gas — knocking him to the ground. Then, according to witnesses, she put the truck in reverse and backed over him.
Someone in the vehicle reportedly screamed, “You killed him.”
Blackwell allegedly got out of her truck — tow strap still dangling from the front — climbed into a nearby black pickup, and drove away. Bear was pronounced dead at the scene before 6 a.m.
When investigators caught up with Blackwell at her mother’s home, she told police she heard a “banging sound” and thought she was still stuck in the mud. She said she only realized something was wrong when she heard Bear yelling from the ground — and still, she left.
She has since been charged with leaving the scene of a crash with death and is currently held at Orange County Jail on a $15,000 bond.
Bear’s family says he was always willing to help strangers. They are now pushing for additional charges to be filed.
A man showed up in the middle of the night to help someone in need. He deserved better than this.
