The Story of What Happened to Jeb

We have intentionally kept the details of what happened to our son Johnathan Eugene Bridgeman – “Jeb” – quiet because there was an active police investigation. We felt it was better to wait until everything was finalized. Gregg found out yesterday that the investigation is closed. I feel like it’s important to share, because there seem to be a lot of rumors and gossip around the driver and/or around Jeb.

Here’s the story:

Jeb was walking home from Walmart. It wasn’t dark yet, but it was twilight and had been drizzling throughout that day. He was walking on the right-hand side of a road without a sidewalk, in the shoulder, as close to the grass as he could get. Several cameras from businesses along the highway captured his progress.

At one point he looks over his right shoulder (toward the tree line – not the road) and without hesitation begins to run. He bursts into a full out sprint.

We don’t know what he saw. But something scared him. There have been multiple news stories about a black bear in our town this summer. We all wonder if he saw the bear. Jeb was not a fearful person. A human being would not have scared him. In Fort Knox we had several foxes in our neighborhood. A fox would not have scared him. He might have approached or called out to a stray dog. Smaller animals like raccoons, opossums, or the like would not have phased him. Whatever he saw made him momentarily forget his well-ingrained caution of the roadways and he began to race.

What he saw scared him. It made him run.

As he ran, looking over his right shoulder, he inadvertently veered to his left. He got too close to the edge of the road or possibly even into the road and six steps into his run away from whatever he saw, he was struck by the driver of a pickup truck traveling at about 52 miles per hour. About a full second later, the driver locked his brakes up.

One fear we had was that Jeb lay dying in the middle of the road, in the drizzly pre-dark twilight, alone, in pain, knowing he was dying. The coroner assured us that he died as instantly as instant can be.

The detective told us he is labeling the event a “tragic accident.”

The forensic evidence at scene of this “tragic accident” was deceptive to the actual events. An accident investigator could have concluded that the driver did not hit his brakes and that Jeb was struck 80 feet or more from where the impact really occurred, bringing the driver’s actions and account into question.

The video evidence is conclusive. We may never know why the driver didn’t see him in the first place, but the driver stood on his brakes after he hit Jeb. You can see his truck nose-dive with the lights flaring and hear the squealing of his tires in the video. As soon as the truck came to rest, the driver immediately got out and ran to Jeb, knelt down, and checked on him. Then while on the phone with 9-1-1, he and a friend of his who was driving behind him stood in the middle of the road and protected Jeb’s body from other cars until another driver saw what was going on and blocked traffic with her vehicle.

THREE MINUTES after calling 9-1-1, the first police car car arrived. Two minutes later, the ambulance arrived. After that, the video is obscured by the lights of the ambulance.

We’d like to dispel a few assumptions/rumors that we’ve seen floating around social media and news sites:

• Jeb did not intentionally step out or jump out in front of the truck. He was not in need of mental health help. He was a happy and thriving young man who had just bought a new watch from Walmart and was walking home in his brand new Converse High Tops that Gregg bought him that day. He left no suicide notes or messages. He did not give any of his possessions away. He had just purchased new things and had communicated his birthday gift requests which would have come a few weeks later.
• The driver did not flee the scene. He stayed there, attempted to offer aid and comfort, called 9-1-1, and protected our boy’s body with his own.
• The driver was not impaired, nor was he on his phone, nor texting.
• He was not intentionally “breezing” a pedestrian nor was he “goofing off” behind the wheel.
• He was not really speeding. The speed limit was 45 there but had only been lowered from 55 recently.
• There could be a thousand reasons why the driver did not see Jeb on the side of the road, but any of them could be reasonable and explicable reasons. It only takes a second of distraction for tragedy to strike and anyone who has driven for more than five minutes knows that those distractions happen every day.

The fact is, it was nothing more than a tragic accident.

It doesn’t make it right. It doesn’t fix the way the world is a dimmer, darker place without our son.

When I found out there was a video of the impact, my emotional brain rejected the notion of someone watching it – much less Gregg watching it. But, the logical side of my brain is relieved that the facts are known and there are no assumptions. Just as Gregg needed to see Jeb’s body the night it happened, he needed to see the video to settle his own heart and mind.

My heart hurts for the driver. He is young –closer to Scott’s age than Kaylee’s. I hate that he had to play a part in this tragic accident and that he will have this burden his entire life. It’s awful and it’s wrong. We pray for him all the time.

Gregg and I both felt like we could begin to move forward with the conclusion of the police investigation. However, for me at least, the world is just as dark as it was before. Maybe we’re moving forward in a different way than what I imagined it would be. Every morning, I wake up and hope to find myself in our bedroom in Fort Knox and discover that this entire terrible year has been a dream. But it’s not a dream. It’s real.

It’s wrong and it sucks. But it’s real.

That’s not the end of our story, though. Our family has leaned into each other, holding fast to one another and to God’s promises. We know that He is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit (Psalm 34:18) . He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds (Psalm 147:3).

Jeb’s death shocked everyone and sent a ripple through our community of friends and family that has astounded us. Our friends and family and church family have circled around us and provided us with so much love and comfort and reminded us over and over again that we are not alone. They have been the hands and feet of 2 Corinthians 1:5 (For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.)

The world is dimmer, but we know that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5). So, we will keep clinging to that light and know that one day, we’ll see our precious son again.