Police are still searching for the driver who fatally struck a Staten Island nursing student as he biked home from Wagner College Sunday night around 9 p.m. Investigators believe 29-year-old Ronald Tillman was killed by the driver of a dark-colored, newer-model SUV or pickup truck, possibly a Dodge Durango. (The front grill is now missing.) Tillman's mother, who lives upstate near Syracuse, tells the Staten Island Advance the driver is "a coward. What a coward. At least give him a little comfort instead of leaving him in pain and letting him die alone. I’m sure it’s somebody who was doing something they weren’t supposed to be doing... Still, fess up, and face the music. That’s despicable."
Tillman had recently moved to Staten Island from Brooklyn, where he had graduated with a film degree from Brooklyn College. But he was changing careers to become a nurse, and his mother says, "Everything was just coming together. He was so happy. He finally found a career he was going to love." His car was stolen when he lived in Brooklyn, so Tillman was commuting by bicycle between his home and the college. In his free time, he volunteered at a local hospital, spending time with elderly patients and keeping them company.
“His mother’s just heartbroken that he died alone and nobody stopped to see if he was okay or not," Tillman's distraught aunt, Joan Snihur, tells the Daily News, adding that she'll miss Tillman's sense of humor most of all. "He was hysterical. He was great at impersonations. He was always at the table entertaining all his cousins. Identifying the driver's not going to bring him back, but we still can’t understand how somebody could do that."
Anyone with information about the hit-and-run driver is encouraged call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS (8477); visit nypdcrimestoppers.com or send text tips to CRIMES (274637), then enter TIP577.
