ROCHESTER HILLS, Mich. (WXYZ) — A man who was critically injured earlier this month after being hit by a car in Rochester Hills has since died.
Seventy-two-year-old Stephen Singleton, a beloved husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather, was out for his morning walk on Nov. 3 when he was hit and killed crossing Rochester Road near Avon Road around 6:45 a.m.
Investigators say he was wearing a reflective vest and was in the marked crosswalk.
The Oakland County Sheriff's Office says the driver is a citizen of Colombia who was in the country illegally. However, he did have a valid foreign drivers license, which is accepted in Michigan.
“I was sitting at the table reading my bible waiting for him to come back and he left about 6 o'clock or so," the victims wife Teri Singleton recalled. "It started being 7 (o'clock) and then 7:30 and I started thinking did something happen?"
Shortly after, she learned something did happen.
“I was sitting there as there was a knock on the door and it was unusual for someone to knock on the door that early in the morning," Teri Singleton said. "I went to the door and when I looked out, I saw a sheriff."
The deputy informed Teri Singleton of the accident and she says her husband was initially alert at the time.
“Initially, he was talking," Teri Singleton said of her husband. "I don't know how he was talking because the car hit him so hard that he flew in the air and hit the windshield and broke it.”
Teri Singleton and her daughter Ruth sat down with our Glenda Lewis and told her that after Stephen arrived at the hospital, he took a turn and was put on life support. Doctors gave him a slim chance.
“He (doctor) said that my dad was not going to make it, that he had zero percent to live," Ruth Singleton said. "I remember thinking to myself that my dad was so strong that he just doesn't know my dad. He doesn't know all the things my dad did to help people.”
Stephen Singleton was a former WXYZ-TV employee back in the 80s. During 9/11, he went to Ground Zero as a volunteer. It was one of his many selfless actions that we highlighted with a story back in 2022.
“I started tearing because I couldn't find survivors," Stephen Singleton said during the 2022 interview. "We would find people who were perished, but we couldn't find survivors.”
You can watch our 2022 report with him below:
The family is still hoping to get more answers and waits for potential charges in the case against the driver.
“One day, I wake up and just know he's gone for such a simple and senseless thing," Ruth Singleton said. "I just don't understand.”
The Singleton family has set up an online fundraiser to help cover expenses as they mourn their loss.
