Mother of Asheville man killed crossing I-40 on Labor Day speaks on his death
ASHEVILLE — While Asheville Police Department officers continue to investigate a Sept. 4 fatal collision on I-40, the victim’s mother is grappling with his sudden death and funeral costs she can’t afford.
After a preliminary investigation, police say Brian Montrael Pickens, 38, of Asheville, was walking in a travel lane of I-40 West when he was hit by a silver sedan traveling west between Sweeten Creek and Hendersonville roads. A Sept. 15 APD news release named the woman driving the vehicle but did not indicate if the individual was charged.
"Asheville Police Department Officers are continuing to investigate," spokesperson Samantha Booth confirmed Sept. 12. "No charges have been brought forth at this time."
Pickens' mother, Marguerite Pickens, a disabled Army veteran, said six APD officers came to her home in the early morning of Sept. 5 because her son, who was homeless, had her address listed on his ID. They asked her who Brian Pickens was, and thinking that her son was in trouble, she explained that she was his mother, but they had recently “gone through some changes” and she had “told him not to come over to my house.”
“When they came in, they kind of circled around my living room,” Pickens told the Citizen Times Sept. 6, detailing how the officers then said her son had been struck by a car.
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After having some trouble getting information on her son’s death, Pickens said an APD sergeant told her that the woman who hit her son stopped her vehicle after the collision, but the vehicles behind her did not. Eventually, two tow trucks near the area came and blocked Brian Pickens' body to prevent him from being run over further. Marguerite Pickens said was informed that her son died instantly.
“That gives me a little peace,” she said, because she was previously told his skull was cracked and she thought he was “just floating around like a piece of trash.”
As she is dealing with the loss of one of her twin sons, Pickens said, “Mission Hospital is aggravating me, wanting his body released. I don’t have the money to get it because I don’t have the money to pay for the funeral.”
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Angela O’Brian, Brian Pickens' fifth-grade teacher and adopted mom whom he lived with “on and off for 20 years,” said Brian was one of the “sweetest, funniest guys.”
“He really loved the people he loved, and he had a good heart,” O’Brian told the Citizen Times Sept. 7, adding that life had always been hard for him. “He was always dreaming of a better life. He just had a hard time making it happen.”
O’Brian said that Pickens, who has two sons, dealt with mental health issues and a "delicate" living situation throughout his life, and struggled with drugs the last couple years, which she said is “interesting because he never really did before.” The last time O’Brian spoke with Pickens, he was talking about getting his GED at Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College.
Both Marguerite Pickens and O’Brian said they don’t know why Brian Pickens was walking along the highway late at night, and they called the driver a “decent person” for stopping and calling 911, O’Brian adding that she “holds no ill will against the driver.”
Ryley Ober is the Public Safety Reporter for Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA Today Network. News tips? Email Ryley at rober@gannett.com. Please support local, daily journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Mother of Asheville man killed crossing I-40 speaks on his death
