Deshawn Lee, 33, fatally struck by sedan driver in East Garfield, is 2nd person on an e-moto killed within 3 weeks in Chicago by a motorist who ran a red
Update 10/6/26, 8:45 AM: Yesterday night, the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office Identified the electric motorcycle rider who was fatally struck by a sedan driver in East Garfield Park as Deshawn Lee, 33. He lived about 2 miles southwest of the crash site in North Lawndale. This article has been edited accordingly.
Tragically, Deshawn Lee, 33, was riding an electric motorcycle early yesterday morning in East Garfield Park when he was struck and killed by a driver who disobeyed his traffic signal. Compounding the tragedy, this was the second example of this kind of traffic death on Chicago streets within three weeks.
According to the initial Chicago Police Department statement on Sunday, October 4, around 6:06 a.m., Lee was traveling west on Lake Street on a “bicycle.”
While all other reports I’ve seen on the case used this terminology, or called the device an “e-bike,” an ABC7 Chicago story includes footage of a fat-tired Miyazaki vehicle. All the vehicles of this style on the company’s website have motors of at least 1,000 watts.
According to Ride Illinois, a bicycle advocacy organization that lobbied for a recently passed state law regulating electric micromobility vehicles, “Devices with an electric motor greater than 750 watts are not e-bikes.” They add, “Any type of device with an electric motor beyond a Class 1, 2, or 3 electric bicycle is not a legal e-bike and should not be advertised, sold, offered for sale, or labeled as an e-bike. These devices are commonly referred to as e-motos [i.e., electric motorcycles] or Out-of-Class Electric Vehicles.” These high-speed vehicles often or usually don’t involve pedaling.
As Lee rode the e-moto west on Lake and crossed Homan Avenue, at a northeast corner of the Garfield Park green space, he was struck by the adult male driver of a black, two-door sedan, police said. The victim was taken to Mt. Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The driver, who stayed on the scene, suffered an injury to his hand, but declined emergency medical services. Footage from the ABC report shows that his windshield was shattered.
This evening, Police News Affairs told Streetsblog the driver “was given a citation for disobeying a traffic-control signal.”
Update 10/6/96, 2:15 PM: Streetsblog obtained a copy of the Illinois Traffic Crash Report, which provides more details about what reportedly happened.
According to the crash report’s narrative, responding officers were waved down at Lake and Kedzie Avenue by motorists who said a person was struck by a driver. When the police arrived at Homan they saw Deshawn Lee unresponsive in the street, and they called for an ambulance.
The report says the sedan driver stopped south of Lake Street, past Maypole Avenue. He told an officer he was driving south on Homan when Lee rode west on Lake in front of the car, and the motorist struck him.
The narrative confirms that the vehicle was a black Miyazaki, and says it was lying on the grassy parkway on Homan, next to the sedan. The driver told the police the bike had been wedged under the car, and he pulled it out and placed it on the grass.
According to the report, Lee was taken to Mt. Sinai in an ambulance, and was pronounced dead at 6:37 a.m.
The report states that police took the driver to St. Anthony’s Hospital for a DUI blood test.
The narrative says the crash was recorded by a Police Observation Device camera at 6:06 a.m. After police reviewed the footage, they cited the sedan driver “for disobeying a solid red signal.”
Judging from the sketch of the crash and the narrative, it appears that Lee was riding with traffic and had a green light. There is no indication that the fatal collision was caused by any factors besides the driver blowing his red light.
Less than three weeks ago on Monday, September 14, around 5:15 a.m. at Archer and Laramie avenues in Garfield Ridge, a pickup driver ran a red light, fatally struck Juan Martin Márquez, 54, and then ran away from the crash site. According to the Illinois Traffic Crash Report the victim was riding a YOULON Z10 electric motorcycle with a 2000 watt battery. This evening, News Affairs said there are no updates on that case.
According to a Chicago Department of Transportation spokesperson, CDOT does not classify electric motorcycle crashes as bicycle crashes in its Monthly Fatal Crash Summaries, which typically are released a month or two after the collisions take place.
Likewise, SBC does not classify e-moto cases as bicycle deaths or currently include them in our Fatality Tracker series – which covers bike, pedestrian, and e-scooter cases on Chicago surface streets – just as we do not include gas-powered motorcycle cases. However, deadly e-moto crashes are also tragic, especially when they are caused by reckless motorists, as these two recent crashes were. Therefore, we are trying to keep our readers informed about these cases.
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