Wife of man fatally hit by car blames Alzheimer's, not driver

KANSAS CITY, Kan. - The wife of a man who was hit and killed by a car Monday night in Kansas City, Kan., said she blames her husband’s Alzheimer's disease for the accident, not the driver.

John Brewer was wearing a GPS tracking device Monday when he was hit and killed by a car on the 18th Street Expressway Bridge.

The 62-year-old former missionary and electrician had been living with Alzheimer's for the last four years, and his wife Sharon had purchased a GPS tracking device that Brewer wore on his belt.

Sharon said Brewer liked to walk around the neighborhood, so she set up a one-block boundary around their Kansas City, Kan., home. She said if Brewer walked outside of the boundary, she would receive an email and then immediately call her husband's cell phone.

"I'd tell him he'd gone to far," Sharon said. "And he'd say 'Oh, yeah, I'm coming back now."

On Monday, Sharon got an email, called Brewer, told him to come home, but Brewer didn't listen.

"I said 'Come back this way to where we live," Sharon said. "He said he was going across the river, and I said 'We don't live there.' He wasn't making sense."

Sharon tracked Brewer's location on her cell phone. She and her friends tried to catch up with him, but it was too late.

"My friend called me and said he had been hit by car," Sharon said.

After the accident, Sharon said she went up to the man who was driving the car that struck and killed her husband. She said she wiped his tears, gave him a hug and told him she wasn't mad at him.

Sharon said she is relying on her faith to get her through this trying time.

For more information on Alzheimer's, including resources for caregivers, care professionals and more, you can call the Alzheimer's Association's 24/7 Helpline at 1-800-272-3900 or visit www.alz.org .