Cyclist death found to be homicide

22 year old German student Nils Yannick Linke was visiting San Francisco last August 2010 when he borrowed a bicycle to ride to a party.

Earlier that evening of Friday, August 13, 36-year-old Josh Calder and his girlfriend were drinking heavily at a restaurant, downing two bottles of wine, shots of liquor and after-dinner drinks at Kokkari, according to witnesses. After Calder and his girlfriend left the restaurant, Calder ran his Mercedes over Nils Linke on Masonic near Turk. Witnesses than watched in horror as Linke got out of his car, tossed the bicycle to the side of the road, then switched places with the girlfriend before fleeing the scene. Police caught Calder two blocks away.

A recently released autopsy report now determines the cause of Nils Linke’s death to be vehicular homicide.

According to the SF Examiner, his girlfriend Nicole Mairs told the court, “Josh is so remorseful for what happened, and I know that the memory [of] the events of that horrific night eats Josh up daily. Every moment, Josh’s thoughts and prayers go out to the family of Nils Linke.”

Read more at the San Francisco Examiner: German cyclist’s death found to be a homicide.

8 Comments

  1. Really? These two drunks ran over a guy, tried to pretend like it didn’t happen, switched seats and then drove away and he feels bad about it? I hope he feels much, much worse when he gets sentenced to ten or fifteen years in prison.

    I have not an iota of sympathy for drunk drivers. All that sympathy goes to Nils’ family.

  2. OK, so they’ve decided it was a homicide. The critical part is the eventual sentencing, assuming he’s convicted. A drunk driver here in Oklahoma recently was sentenced to over 20 years for killing two cyclists, but far too often an offender gets a very light sentence.

  3. I’m furious that the Examiner felt it necessary to mention that the victim of this drunk hit & run wasn’t wearing a helmet. As IF it was partly HIS fault that he died!!!!!!!!! Give me a freakin’ break. Following that logic says he should’ve been protected by a few thousand pounds of steel to be safe on the road. Safe from being hit by a drunk idiot, supported by his drunk girlfriend.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.