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Street sweeper strikes homeless man downtown

Posted at 12:37 PM, Jun 21, 2017
and last updated 2017-06-21 12:38:00-04

INDIANAPOLIS -- Police are looking for an Indianapolis street sweeper that struck a homeless man downtown early Tuesday morning.

 

The collision happened around midnight Tuesday near the intersection of Pearl and East streets on the east side of downtown.

 

According to police, 52-year-old Patrick Fields said he was attempting to flag down the street sweeper to discuss flooding underneath the nearby railroad bridge caused by rainfall.

 

Fields told police the street sweeper driver “must not have seen him, and struck him with his side view mirror.” The collision caused Fields to fall backward, suffering minor injuries to his knuckles and a small abrasion on his left temple.

 

The street sweeper then reportedly left the scene, and police were unable to find it.

 

Medics responded to the scene and determined Fields had not suffered any serious injuries from the collision.

 

The Indianapolis Department of Public Works told RTV6 that, given the time and location of the incident, it doesn’t believe the street sweeper belonged to the city. Instead, DPW thinks it could be a street sweeper contracted by another agency like Citizens Energy Group.

 

RTV6 reached out to Citizens Energy, who said that area was swept by contractor Advance Sweeping Services Monday night, but that neither Citizens Energy nor Advance Sweeping Services had heard anything about the incident.

 

Citizens Energy said it intended to continue the investigating the incident on its end.

 

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