Bicyclist killed in hit and run

ST. PETERSBURG - A hit and run accident early this morning in St. Petersburg killed a handyman on his way home from a job.

Police know who owns the vehicle, but they don't know where it is or who was driving it at the time.

The victim, 49-year old Robert Dunbar, has a minor criminal history, including a DUI and an arrest for driving without a license, which probably explains why he was on a bicycle.

Naomi Dunbar of St. Petersburg says her 49-year old son was on his way home when he was struck and killed early Tuesday morning. The neighborhood handyman was summoned by a man anxious to use his television set.

"I said he's come back twice, you need to go and fix his television, and he said OK I'll do that right now mom. So what he was doing was coming back from this guy's house," Dunbar said.

Dunbar was crossing 22nd Avenue South on his bicycle when he was hit by a small Toyota fleeing the scene of a reported street fight. Police responding to the brawl did not pursue the car, but they did get its license plate. It is a rental car that was reported missing several weeks ago.

"A woman had rented the car and then loaned it to her adult daughter," says St. Petersburg Police spokesman Bill Proffitt. "The daughter was a drug user and admitted that she traded the car for two pieces of crack cocaine."

That was in late July. Police do not know who has been driving the car since then, nor who was driving the car at the time of the accident.

Former schoolmates describe Dunbar as very intelligent and friendly.

"He was a jack of trades and he loved to work on cars," Naomi Dunbar said.