Senior citizen run down in hit-and-run in West Rogers Park

By Stefano Esposito and LeeAnn Shelton Staff Reporters
Norman David Esho was died Tuesday evening after an SUV struck him while he was crossing street 2800 block West

Norman David Esho was died Tuesday evening after an SUV struck him while he was crossing the street in the 2800 block of West Devon on his way to a relative’s video store. He died of his injuries at St. Francis Hospital in Evanston.

Updated: August 22, 2013 2:18AM

In 1994, Norman David Esho and his family — all Christian refugees — fled Saddam Hussein’s Iraq in search of a peaceful life in America.

While he lost his wife to a heart attack in 2003, the 83-year-old had found that life in West Rogers Park.

But on Tuesday evening, an SUV struck Esho while he was in a crosswalk and on his way to a relative’s video store in the 2800 block of West Devon, police and family said. Esho later died of his injuries at St. Francis Hospital in Evanston. The driver of the SUV fled the scene, investigators said.

On Wednesday morning, police were looking for the SUV, described as maroon or red — and either a GMC or a Chevrolet.

“Maybe nobody saw him, but God saw him,” said Marina Nissan, who is married to Esho’s son, Ashur David. “So he will be punished one day.”

Nissan said Esho was a healthy, independent man who regularly took walks in his neighborhood.

“We expected for him to live another 10 years,” Nissan said. “We didn’t expect him to end up this way.”

Nissan said the family got the tragic news from her brother, who owns the video store Esho was visiting when he was struck.

She said Esho fled Iraq’s northern oil city of Kirkuk with his wife and two sons. She said he’d fully adapted to life in America, delighting in the freedoms this country offered, while still holding dear some of his loves and hobbies from the old country.

Esho loved to sing Assyrian songs and had made a CD of his music, Nissan said. He was due to be interviewed on a local Assyrian TV station, she said. He often sang in the house, the home he shared with his two sons, Nissan, and two grandchildren.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/22066837-418/senior-citizen-run-down-in-hit-and-run-in-west-rogers-park.html