Man dies after being hit by pickup in downtown Nashville, police say

A 58-year-old man is dead after being struck by a pickup truck in a crosswalk in downtown Nashville early Saturday.

The Metro Nashville Police Department said the man, identified as Michael O’Connell of Belmar, New Jersey, was using a crosswalk at 12th Avenue North and Broadway around 1 a.m. while the walk light was activated. He was struck by a 2009 Dodge pickup truck that had a green light but failed to yield to O'Connell, a preliminary investigation showed.

Police said 36-year-old Joey Nixon of Waverly, Tennessee, was driving the truck and initially left the scene before returning. Witnesses told police Nixon had been spinning the truck's tires and speeding before the accident. Nixon did not show any signs of impairment, according to MNPD. He was cited with a failure to yield right of way.

MNPD said the case will be reviewed by the Davidson County District Attorney's Office at the conclusion of the police investigation.

O'Connell's death marks the second pedestrian killed after being hit by a vehicle downtown in as many days.

Leroy Wienke, 66, of Westfield, Wisconsin, was waiting on the sidewalk with his wife, brother-in-law and sister-in-law near the intersection of Fourth Avenue North and Commerce Street on Thursday night, MNPD said. That's when a car traveling at a high rate of speed swerved to miss a stopped car in the road, jumped the curb and plowed into the group before swerving back into the road and colliding with a parked car.

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Wienke's wife and sister-in-law suffered non-life-threatening injuries, along with a passenger in the car, driven by 25-year-old John A. Williams, according to police.

Police said Williams was celebrating his 25th birthday that night. He was arrested at the scene and charged with vehicular homicide by intoxication, three counts of vehicular assault and three counts of reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon.

When officers tried to talk to the passengers in Williams' car, they all said they couldn't give an account of what happened because "they were on their phones," according to an affidavit. Williams is being held at the Downtown Detention Center on $105,000 bond. A court date has not yet been set.

Kirsten Fiscus contributed to this story.

Reach reporter Rachel Wegner at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter and Bluesky @RachelAnnWegner.

This story was updated to add a video.