CITY OF TONAWANDA, N.Y. (WKBW) — On Monday night, Terrence Wyatt, 40, a father of six, was going on his nightly walk.
He was crossing Delaware Street near the Tonawanda Castle when he was hit by a van that was involved in a wild crime spree that stretched from the Southtowns to Niagara County.
"I've been doing this job for over 20 years now. I've never responded to a scene of this magnitude. So it absolutely shakes the foundation of the city," Captain Kevin Ulmer said.
His family is devastated by the loss of the kind, warmhearted teddy bear of a man.
“Six kids are now without a dad,” said his widow, Robin Wyatt. “How can that be?”
On Thursday, I met with Robin Wyatt and two of Terrence’s sisters, Yolanda Wyatt and Vincentia Wyatt-Johnson, who are demanding justice.
Robin Wyatt, wearing a yellow dress Thursday that her husband loved on her, said Terrence was out walking because he’s been trying to get healthier.
“For the past year, his heart had only been working at 50%. So he was really trying hard to strengthen his heart up and become healthier and he was losing a ton of weight and doing so good and going to the gym,” she said. “He was doing everything he could to live as long as possible for his kids.”
The man accused in the hit and run, Mark Whalen, 31, of Hamburg is facing a slew of felonies, including second-degree manslaughter.
His family said that’s not enough.
“I want justice for him. I want Mark Whalen to be put away for the rest of his life,” Robin Wyatt said.
Yolanda Wyatt, one of his older sisters, agreed.
“His kids and his wife have to look at that corner every time they walk out that door every day. That's trauma. But if this man gets to be set free in a few years, I am not OK with that,” she said.
Vincentia Wyatt-Johnson remembered her brother as a good man who deserved so much better.
“My brother was a meek man, he was compassionate, he was kind and sometimes people frown as far as men showing emotions, but Terrence, he knew how to show emotions,” she said.
Whalen is due back in court Friday and the family vowed to be there.
A friend set up a GoFundMe to help Robin and her children. You can find it here.
