A man mowing a lawn along a rural highway was struck and killed by a car near southwest suburban Manhattan on Sunday, and the driver is facing reckless homicide charges.
Zevez A. Murrell, 31, was driving a blue Toyota Camry southbound on U.S. 52 near Delaney Road in Manhattan Township when the car swerved into the northbound lanes and sideswiped a Honda Civic, Illinois State Police Master Sgt. Wilfredo Rivera said.
The Camry then swerved back across the southbound lanes and drove into a ditch on the west side of the roadway, then hit a John Deere tractor, Rivera said.
The driver of the tractor, 68-year-old Thomas Knepper of Myrtle Beach, S.C., had been cutting grass on a lawn along U.S. 52 at the time, according to the Will County Coroner’s office.
He was thrown off the tractor and pronounced dead at the scene, Rivera said. The driver of the Civic was not hurt.
Murrell, of Kankakee, was given a breath test and taken to a hospital where blood and urine tests were performed, police said.
He has been charged with reckless homicide and aggravated DUI, and is being held at the Will County Jail, authorities said. Bond information was not immediately available.
