EUGENE, Ore. — A homeless woman sleeping in a bright red sleeping bag in the middle of a downtown Eugene parking lot was hit and killed by a garbage truck Monday, Eugene police said.
The woman was identified Friday as Annette Lorraine Montero, 57, of San Leandro, California.
The hit-and-run happened in a parking lot off Willamette Street near 12th Avenue.
A spokesperson for the police department said in a news release the truck was operated by Sanipac Garbage Services.
Dan Bryant, a minister at nearby First Christian Church in Eugene, confirmed to KEZI Wednesday that the woman had attended breakfast at the church Sunday. He said she was carrying a red sleeping bag at the time and that she didn’t interact much with others.
He showed KEZI security video, in which the woman is seen hanging around the church.
Bryant added she fell asleep in one part of the parking lot but moved to a different spot in the middle of the night.
“Many of our volunteers who did interact with her Sunday morning took the news pretty hard. It's a horrible way for anyone to die,” Bryant said.
KGW reached out to Sanipac Wednesday afternoon. We were instructed to leave a voicemail for a district manager, who has not yet called back.
Eugene police have not charged the driver who was operating the truck, and court documents obtained by KEZI indicated there was "probable cause to believe that evidence of the crime of failure to perform the duties of a driver - injury."
In a Facebook post that’s been shared hundreds of times, Bryant wrote, "I weep for the woman whose name we do not know. I pray for the many others without dens or nests and that death for lack of a place to sleep will be no more because we found a place for each person to lay their head."
Then, referencing the woman’s red sleeping bag that was, he said, torn open by the ordeal, he wrote, “Until then, I am haunted by feathers."