Man charged after fatal bicycle crash in Tucson

TUCSON, Ariz. (KOLD News 13) - A man is facing charges after he allegedly ran over and killed a cyclist while intoxicated, city police said.

The Tucson Police Department said Nicolas Daniel Jesse Tope, 24, has been charged with second-degree murder and leaving the scene of a fatal collision.

The TPD said officers were called before 5 a.m. to the 4500 block of East Grant Road after they got reports of a crash between a bicycle and a 2019 white Kia Rio. When officers got there, they said they found 56-year-old John Winston Abbey suffering from life-threatening injuries.

Medics treated Abbey at the scene before they took him to Banner University Medical Center.

Officers also allegedly found that Tope, the driver, had left the scene. Police later located him near East Grant Road and North Columbus Boulevard and determined he was “impaired.”

Police said they discovered through the investigation that Abbey was riding his bicycle west on East Grant Road, and had just passed North Swan Road, when Tope, also headed west, crashed the Kia into him.

During the investigation, Abbey succumbed to his injuries.

Tope was booked into the Pima County Jail with bond not yet set.