Victim’s Last Minutes Described

A pedestrian allegedly struck by Bishop Thomas O’Brien’s car was bleeding heavily but still alive minutes after the hit-and-run, a woman testified Wednesday at the clergyman’s trial.

Kellie Gonzalez, an 18-year-old pre-med student and lifeguard, said she stopped her car in a Phoenix street on the night of June 14 after she saw a man lying in the road ahead.

“I’m a good Samaritan,” Gonzalez testified at O’Brien’s trial on charges of leaving the scene of a fatal accident. “I immediately put on my emergency lights to go out and help. I grabbed my cellphone and CPR mask.”

She put her ear over the victim’s nose to determine if he was breathing and “he began to cough a few times. Eventually, he just stopped.” Gonzalez said the man was bleeding from a head wound and she did not use CPR “because his bleeding was so severe.” She called 911.

James Reed, a 43-year-old father of two, was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead.

Attorneys for the former head of the Phoenix diocese argue that O’Brien did not see Reed, who was in dark clothing, intoxicated and jaywalking. They also say O’Brien, 68, did not realize he had struck a person.

Prosecutors have said fibers from the victim’s shirt were found in O’Brien’s windshield.

O’Brien’s arrest prompted his resignation, ending 21 years as head of the Phoenix Roman Catholic Diocese.