Haverhill Police: Main Street Lights ‘Dim,’ Out at Time of Burrill Hit-and-Run

Haverhill pedestrian Charles O. “Chucky” Burrill Jr. was killed while walking in the crosswalk just after 5 a.m. on Friday, Jan. 25, 2019. (WHAV News file photograph.)

Two weeks after the hit-and-run death of Haverhill pedestrian Charles Burrill, police say city streetlights were either “dim” or out at the time of the 5:14 a.m. accident on Friday, Jan. 25.

A just-released police report obtained by WHAV confirms Burrill was walking west across Main Street in the crosswalk when he was hit by a driver behind the wheel of a silver or light gray Chrysler PT Cruiser driving north up Main Street.

The sole witness to be interviewed by police said he walked past Burrill in the crosswalk, “then heard a loud thump and observed Burrill on the ground” as the Cruiser drove further up Route 125. Fifty-nine-year-old Burrill, a longtime janitorial employee at Anna Jaques Hospital who lived on Groveland Street, was pronounced dead at the scene.

While the driver’s identity was redacted given the nature of the ongoing investigation, responding officer Sergeant Kevin F. Lynch testified in the report that two streetlights on the northbound side of Main and Water Streets were out and a third was “dim.”

Additional public records requests made by WHAV relating to a Jan. 25 warrant served at the home of the driver of the PT Cruiser were denied.

“This is an open investigation and because the investigation is not complete, (information) cannot be released at this time,” records clerk Stella Driscoll told WHAV via email, confirming that Assistant District Attorney William Melkonian is overseeing the case on behalf of the Commonwealth.

A PT Cruiser matching the description of the one involved in the accident was impounded and towed to the Bailey Boulevard police station the evening of Jan. 25. Police were alerted to the vehicle after an eyewitness reported seeing the Cruiser allegedly drive back through the crash scene later on Friday afternoon.