‘What did I hit?’ Driver charged with fleeing after killing pedestrian in August crash

When a Dodge pickup truck “jumped in the air” after hitting a man on South Cottage Grove Avenue of the Far South Side this summer, witnesses said they saw the driver make a three-point turn to examine the damage.

“What did I hit?” Gean Ramey asked a bystander on Aug. 3 before making a U-turn and driving away down Cottage Grove, Assistant Cook County State’s Attorney Patrick Ferrell said Thursday.

A Cook County medical examiner’s report concluded 54-year-old Mark Dandridge died of “multiple injuries” from the hit-and-run in the 9400 block of South Cottage Grove.

A Chicago police surveillance camera showed Ramey’s red pickup go under a viaduct, make the three-point turn, then the U-turn onto 95th Street before driving off without stopping to help. A witness identified Ramey as the driver, Ferrell said. Ramey never reported the collision, the prosecutor added at Ramey’s bond hearing at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse.

Ramey admitted to police he saw something lying in the street after hearing a loud “boom” as he drove under the dark viaduct. He said that he went back to check what it was, but was unable to see anything because “a bus was in the way,” Ferrell said.

Ramey, who has a 2010 DUI conviction, admitted drinking two beers at a friend’s house before hitting Dandridge, and said he did not wait around at the scene because “he did not want his wife to know where he had been,” Ferrell said.

Ramey, who was ordered held on $10,000 bail Thursday, is charged with leaving the scene of an accident involving a death.