By Jeff Balch
“Three witnesses observed victim eastbound on Washington, passing Lorel.
“Witnesses pursued offender to 5237 W. Lake, alley, where he was observed pulling bicycle from under vehicle.”
“Truth is, this kind of thing happens a lot,” responds the Chicagoland
O’Rourke participated in a memorial ride for McBride on May 2, 1999, a week after the incident. “About 150 people came, most on bikes,” he says. “Tommy’s family came. The ride went west from Daley Plaza to the 5300 block of Washington, where he died. It wasn’t like Critical Mass rides I’ve been on. It was a quiet ride. People were talking about what happened, but in a subdued way.
“We had just come back from vacation, and we talked to Tommy Sunday night. Usually he came out to Saint Charles for dinner with us on Sundays. That Sunday he called instead–he didn’t know just when we got back. He told me he was having car trouble and was going to ride his bike the next day. I said, ‘Can’t you take the el?’
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He started as a courier in 1991. Fellow bike messengers describe him glowingly. Jack Blackfelt rode with him at Cannonball and On the Fly. “I was new, and Tommy was a rookie too,” Blackfelt says, “but he was already recognized by everybody at Cannonball as a quiet superstar. He moved really fast. A shy guy, soft-spoken, but he had a way of making everybody feel better about the work. Plus, he was a clear communicator–it’s a transient business, and some riders blow off the company with no notice, but Tommy was always clear about how long he could work.”
