CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (WCIA) — A bed is without sheets, and a wheelchair sits empty after its owner was hit and killed by a car Tuesday night. 

It happened near the intersection of North Market and East Washington Streets in front of Strides Shelter. 

“You can just feel the heaviness of the day,” Charlene Murray, Strides director of operations and community relations, said.

58-year-old James McCammon was the victim. Murray said he was crossing the street in his wheelchair when he was hit. 

Champaign Police said the driver initially left the scene, but 36-year-old Fernando Lorenzo-Raymundo later came forward and identified himself as the driver.

“I would pass him every day on my way to work, I would always say, ‘Hi,’” Shea Belahi said. “If you’ve drove around in Champaign-Urbana or Champaign downtown, you’ve seen him.”

McCammon was a guest at Strides where people stood outside and watched him in his last moments. 

“My first ask was like, ‘Is he okay’ and they [were] like James [is] gone,” Strides guest Larry Collins said. “I broke down crying.”

Murray said McCammon had been a guest at Strides for more than a year.

“As a low barrier shelter, our model is to pretty much [meant to] keep folks alive and get people off of the street who are most vulnerable, so when we spend so much time tirelessly just advocating and motivating them to set goals and stay alive, it cuts deep when we lose somebody this way,” Murray said. 

Lorenzo-Raymundo was arraigned on the charge of leaving the scene of a crash resulting in death — a death that left a hole in the community that knew him.

“That was a good man, and for him to lose his life like that it’s unbelievable,” Collins said. 

Petals now sit in his place both on his favorite street corner downtown and where he found shelter at Strides.

“We have our professional boundaries here so I don’t want to say that our guests are family because they aren’t, but when we do lose someone, it does feel a lot like that,” Murray said. 

Lorenzo-Raymundo faces up to 15 years if convicted. He was released from jail today with pre-trial conditions. 

Police said even though an arrest has been made, the investigation is ongoing. They’re asking anyone in the area of the crash with surveillance cameras to come forward.