UPDATE: Police ID Man Hit By Train on His Way Home from Store

Associated Press
Published: August 27, 2008

    Jasper police have identified the man hit and killed by a train in downtown Jasper
as 47-year-old Steven Lee Shanklin.

    Assistant Police Cheif Danny Patton said Shanklin walked in front of the
Norfolk Southern Freight train in downtown Jasper 9 a.m. Monday as he was
apparently heading home.

    Patton said officers interviewed several witnesses who said Shanklin
walked around a crossing gate, jumped over the first set of tracks
and began walking across the second set before he finally looked up.

    According to the Daily Mountain Eagle, Patton said, “He didn’t own a car and pretty
much walked everywhere he went,“ Patton said.  “One of our witnesses said he yelled
at Mr. Shanklin several times in an effort to get him to stop and come back before the
train got to him, but he (Shanklin) apparently either didn’t hear him or froze when he
realized he was in the train’s path and just couldn’t move.“

    Police were told that Shanklin had just sold some aluminum cans at
a nearby recycling site, brouaght a loaf of bread at a store and was apparently
walking home.

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