Tim Tatters Sr.'s
Facebook profile describes him as a former Allegheny County police officer who
resides in White Oak. He is a 1966 graduate of McKeesport High School.
Investigators did not
have enough evidence to charge a retired Allegheny County police officer with
homicide or manslaughter for hitting and killing a mentally ill woman who was
walking on a McKeesport highway, police said.
Timothy Tatters Sr., 64,
is charged with leaving the scene of an accident and careless driving in the
death of Lorraine Wilkes, 56. Police believe alcohol was involved in the
hit-and-run on Wednesday, said police Lt. Andrew Schurman, but they could not
prove it to bring a more serious charge.
Tatters said on Friday
that he believes Wilkes might have jumped in front of him as he drove on Lysle
Boulevard.
“Either that, or she was
lying on the road, below hood level, because the damage is primarily down on my
bumper,” he said.
Tatters insisted he was
not drunk at the time of the accident.
Schurman said Tatters
did not receive special treatment before he was arrested at his White Oak home
on Friday morning and released on a $100,000 unsecured bond.
Tatters was a county
officer for more than 21 years, family members said, and retired in 1993
because of heart problems.
“We don‘t want to delay,
but we don‘t want to rush to judgment either,” Schurman said.
Tatters told
investigators that he was at the Country Corral Bar in McKeesport for 11 hours
— from 2:30 p.m. Tuesday until 1:30 a.m. Wednesday — and drank three 16-ounce
beers. He left the bar with his daughter-in-law, who is training as a
bartender, and drove her home to Glassport, where he spent time with her and
his grandson before going home.
Wilkes was struck
between 4 and 4:45 a.m. at Lysle Boulevard and Huey Street, and police said the
impact threw her into shrubs. She died about three hours later in UPMC Mercy,
Uptown, with multiple injuries to the head, trunk and extremities, a spokesman
for the Allegheny County Medical Examiner‘s Office said.
Tatters told
investigators that he thought he had hit a dog. Once he arrived home, he said,
he checked his Jeep Cherokee for damage and assumed he must have struck a deer.
Wilkes, whom police said
suffered from mental illness, including schizophrenia, was about 5 feet, 9
inches tall and weighed about 320 pounds.
Police used parts of
vehicle wreckage at the scene to identify the make and model of the Jeep
Cherokee that struck Wilkes and put out a description to the public. One of
Tatters‘ neighbors saw the reports and called investigators.
Investigators did not
test Tatters‘ blood for the presence of drugs or alcohol because they did not
identify him as a suspect or interview him until 12 hours after the accident,
police said.
“There is no homicide
charge because there is no way to prove how the accident actually took place,
given that there is no way to reconstruct the events or timeline connected to
the accident,” said Mike Manko, spokesman for Allegheny County District
Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr.
Tatters was charged with
drunken driving in December 2009 by Uniontown police, according to court
records. He was sentenced to a probationary program for first-time offenders.
His probation expired in 2011.
Wilkes lived at Mon
Yough Community Services near where she was struck and killed, police said.
James Andrews, who is
risk manager there, declined to discuss Wilkes specifically but said the
facility houses people with mental illness. It is not a locked-down building,
and staff members don‘t prevent residents from leaving, he said.
“She was a beautiful
person,” said Helen Haskins, 55, a resident of the facility. “She would always
sit on the patio to smoke, and she‘d write poetry.”