SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO : Man Killed on I-5 Had Troubled Past

The man who was struck and killed Wednesday morning on Interstate 5 after becoming upset by an emergency siren had a history of drinking problems and had been staying with his family since his release from jail a few months ago, according to family members.

Mark Franklin, 37, who had been living with his mother, sister and brother, ran out of the house wearing only shorts and socks after hearing the siren being tested by officials at Southern California Edison Co. He was at home with his brother, Keith, when the siren sounded.

“We were at work, and all we knew was that there was this terrible noise and he left,” said the man’s distraught mother, Blanche Franklin. “I didn’t know what to think.”

Because Franklin had no identification with him when he was killed, the family did not learn of his death until Thursday afternoon.

Officials at the Orange County coroner’s office had difficulty finding Franklin’s next of kin because his fingerprints were under another name, one of his aliases.

“Mark was an alcoholic and didn’t drive,” Blanche Franklin said. “He had been in and out of jail several times and was staying here the past few months.”

The Franklins live in the Village San Juan condominium complex, just across Interstate 5 from one of the sirens. Two long blasts from the emergency siren, which reached up to 120 decibels, apparently drove Mark Franklin out the door.

“Mark just told Keith he was going outside to check on the noise,” said Geraldine Franklin, Mark’s sister. “Keith was upstairs watching television and didn’t think much of it.”

According to a spokesman for the California Highway Patrol, Franklin made it successfully across the freeway and yelled at an Edison Co. electrician who was monitoring the siren to shut off the noise. When a CHP motorcyclist drove up to help, Franklin bolted back across the freeway and was killed.

Blanche Franklin said her son’s several scrapes with the law may have led to his death.

“He was always getting beaten up by the police. Maybe that’s why he ran when he saw the police officer,” she said.