Syracuse men’s basketball coach Jim Boeheim struck and killed a man walking on an interstate late Wednesday night as he tried to avoid hitting the man’s disabled vehicle, police said.
Syracuse police said 51-year-old Jorge Jimenez was in a car with three others before midnight Wednesday when their vehicle crashed into a guardrail on I-690 in Syracuse. Jimenez had stepped out of the vehicle when Boeheim struck him while trying to avoid the crashed vehicle. Jimenez was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Boeheim, the 74-year-old Basketball Hall of Fame coach, is cooperating with the investigation. “He stopped immediately and exited the vehicle,” said Syracuse Sgt. Matthew Malinowski.
Police said sobriety tests were administered to Boeheim and were negative for any signs of impairment. No tickets have been issued to Boeheim at this time and the investigation is continuing.
A freezing rain had fallen earlier Wednesday night, though it is unclear if the weather had anything to do with the crash. There was no immediate comment from Syracuse University.
Boeheim has coached at Syracuse for 43 years, winning a national title in 2003 and making five Final Four appearances. His team defeated Louisville 69-49 Wednesday night during a home game.
In Chicago, “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett was charged Wednesday with making a false police report when he said he was attacked in downtown Chicago by two men who hurled racist and anti-gay slurs and looped a rope around his neck, police said.
Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said prosecutors charged Smollett with felony disorderly conduct, an offense that could bring one to three years in prison and force the actor to pay for the cost of the investigation into his report of a Jan. 29 beating.
In St. Paul, the University of St. Thomas closed the campus down Wednesday as a result of a snow emergency in St. Paul. This was the third snow emergency in the past two weeks.
Roughly 400 schools closed or delayed in anticipation of the snow, including Minneapolis, St. Paul and Anoka-Hennepin school districts.
The total snowfall recorded at MSP airport amounted to 8.9 inches of snow, amassing to a monthly total of 31.5 inches – a new Minnesota record for the month of February.
Jacob Schneider can be reached at schn6923@stthomas.edu.