Monticello man killed at Thomasville Walmart was 'good-hearted, wonderful man'
A couple of 47 years had just finished some shopping at a South Georgia Walmart on Wednesday, and the husband, Kenneth Kennedy, was waiting outside on the sidewalk for his wife to come out of the store’s entrance.
“All of a sudden, I heard this big sound,” Kathy Kennedy, his wife, told the Tallahassee Democrat.
A car crashed through the stores’s entrance and exit doors in Thomasville, Georgia, killing Kenneth Kennedy, 66, of Monticello, Florida.
The suspect, Khalil Amarion Pugh, 18, recklessly drove a gray 2012 Toyota Camry through the store’s parking lot until it went inside the building, according to a preliminary report from the Georgia Department of Public Safety’s Public Information Office.
“When I looked up, I saw this car that was going so fast, like the blink of an eye, and I didn’t see my husband anymore," Kathy said. "I knew for a fact that the car hit him, and that’s what happened.”
The car came up the Walmart Supercenter’s sidewalk and crashed in the area where the vending machines and shopping carts were in front of the store, Kathy said. She added there was a passenger in the vehicle. Details on that person were not available.
Pugh attempted to make a run for it after crashing the car, but bystanders who were inside stopped him before he was able to get away, Kathy said.
“There was a lot of people, and they were all traumatized,” Kathy said.
Kenneth Kennedy was a veteran who served in the U.S. Army for 25 years. He and Kathy had a daughter together — Katrina Reffitt, 46 — and two grandchildren.
“He was a really good-hearted, wonderful man, and everybody knew him in Monticello,” Kathy said. “He would do anything in the world for anybody and did not know a stranger.”
Following the crash, Georgia’s Thomas County 911 center dispatched all of their units to the Walmart Supercenter located on U.S. 19 North Thomasville, where multiple Georgia State Patrol troopers arrived on the scene to provide assistance.
Pugh was later transported to John D. Archbold Memorial Hospital in Thomasville, but it is not known whether he sustained injuries from the crash.
Pugh was charged with first-degree vehicular homicide, reckless driving, leaving the scene of an accident and driving without a license.
The preliminary report does not state whether the car was stolen.
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In addition to the fatality, another victim was injured as a result of the Toyota striking multiple individuals, according to the Georgia Department of Public Safety.
The incident is still being investigated.
Contact Tarah Jean at tjean@tallahassee.com or follow her on twitter @tarahjean_.
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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Car crash at a Walmart in Georgia kills Monticello, Florida victim
