DeKalb County coroner confirms pedestrian hit by downtown train incident appears to be suicide

DeKALB – A 64-year-old DeKalb man died Monday afternoon after an incident involving a train near downtown DeKalb, and the death appears to be a suicide, confirmed the DeKalb County Coroner’s Office.

DeKalb County Coroner Dennis Miller confirmed the pedestrian killed by the train was a 64 year old DeKalb man.

Miller said the incident appears to be a suicide.

“That’s why we generally don’t put out that information for cases like this,” Miller said.

The Monday afternoon incident was at the railroad crossing at Locust and Seventh streets.

DeKalb Police Cmdr. Steve Lekkas confirmed the death of the pedestrian on Monday and said the initial call came in about 3:15 pm. Monday from either the conductor or engineer of the train. He said that, as of about 4:30 p.m. Monday, there was not a lot of information that authorities are releasing at this time and it’s unclear at this time whether it’s an accident or a suicide.

Lekkas said on Monday more information was expected to be released by the coroner after they finish their investigation on scene. Police officials confirmed next of kin notification took a while because the man’s family lives out of town.

The update comes after DeKalb police officials sent the following text alert to residents about 3:25 p.m. Monday: “Avoid downtown area, train blocking the railroad tracks. Tenth Street still remains open. Thank you for your patience.”

Miller previously confirmed a pedestrian died after being hit by a train Monday afternoon and the coroner was called to the scene about 3:30 p.m. Monday.