Daily Egyptian MONDAY, APRIL 4, 2016
DAILYEGYPTIAN.COM
VOL. 100 ISSUE 71
SINCE 1916
How Tim Beaty saved two SIU students before losing his life
Provided photo of Tim Beaty with his son Jacob when he was about a year old.
TYLER DAVIS | @TDavis_DE
As gunmen opened fire at a party in Carbondale on March 27, two SIU student-athletes, frozen in fear, were caught near the crossfire. Thanks to the quick, selfless actions of Tim Beaty, those two women lived to tell the story. Beaty, a 41-year-old father, did not. Police said he was simply hit by a stray bullet. That narrative became more complex after SIU students who were with Beaty as
he died came forward with more information days after his death. “We wanted [his family to know] that he died helping somebody,” one of the students said. “That could have been me or my friend, and I take that really, really seriously. What if we weren’t there? That maybe wouldn’t have happened to him — he would have been positioned in the house totally different. I don’t want it to go out that he died in a bed just because of a stray bullet. He was a hero that night.”
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But if you ask any of the people who waited in a line that stretched out the doors of Walker Funeral Home at his wake, this completely showed Beaty’s character. “What he did the other night was not something he had to think about,” his mother, Kittie McMillan, said. “It was just his nature.” The altercation that led to Carbondale’s first homicide of 2016 started shortly after 2 a.m. Sunday at a party at 402 W. Walnut St., but spilled into neighboring yards.
Easter shooter turns himself in. See PAGE 2.
Photo provided by Jessica Beaty
Police originally reported that Beaty, a popular local drummer who performed in a dozen different bands, was killed as an uninvolved bystander. But details about his final minutes alive paint the picture of a very involved man, trying to save two strangers on a night when another person had been shot just minutes earlier. “It’s important for [Beaty’s wife] Jessica and [Beaty’s 5-year-old son] Jacob to know that Tim was a hero,” McMillan said. “Anybody that knew
Tim looked at him that way anyway. Even before Easter Sunday.” Three of the five SIU studentathletes who last saw Tim Beaty alive talked to the Daily Egyptian about that night. The students, who wish to remain anonymous because of their coach’s orders, also shared their experience with police. The three seniors will be referred to as Amy, Linda and Frank. Frank explained his hesitation in coming forward with this information. Please see BEATY | 3
For an update on the Evolve shooting, please see PAGE 5.