A 22-year-old University student was expected to die last night after being hit by a car at roughly 2:45 a.m. on Sunday.
The driver who struck him left the scene and has yet to be identified.
Brian Reams, a political science major, was being kept on life support by doctors late Sunday evening so his organs could be donated, said his sister, Caroline Reams. She said he was pronounced brain dead at approximately noon on Sunday.
Originally from Pocatello, Idaho, Brian Reams came to the University in fall 2003 to study political science and business and was a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity.
The car, which witnesses said was a Cadillac, may have damage to the front grille and driver’s side, according to Eugene police. The car was last seen going northbound on Hilyard Street.
Springfield Police impounded a Cadillac with front-end damage matching witnesses’ descriptions, said Shannon Menendez of the Springfield Police Department.
Fraternity brothers, friends and family have reached out to remember Brian Reams. As of about 2:04 a.m. Monday morning, there were 152 members of a Facebook group in remembrance of his life.
About 60 fraternity members – including several alumni who flew in from as far as Berkeley, Calif., and Toronto, Canada – waited to see Brian at Sacred Heart Medical Center on Sunday. Caroline Reams said the fraternity has supported the family during the grieving process and helped shape who he was.
“They have molded him into an amazing person,” she said.
Caroline Reams said her brother was well-liked among his peers.
“He was a lot of fun, he had a big heart and a big smile, she said.
Witnesses said Brian Reams was walking a female friend home when the incident occurred.
Reams was crossing Hilyard Street at 15th Avenue when a Cadillac sedan struck him. University sophomore Eric Brett, who works at the Emerald, witnessed the aftermath of the hit-and-run when he was walking home. He said he saw a white male laying on his side in the street, five or six people around him and a woman screaming frantically. He said he saw Ream’s belongings laying in the road near the intersection, which was approximately 20 to 25 feet away from his body. Brett said those around Reams were giving orders about giving him space, and he heard them say they couldn’t find a pulse, but he said he thought they eventually did.
Brett said he stayed until Reams was taken away in an ambulance, and waited for police to ask him for a witness statement, but police didn’t question him.
Sometime in the night after the incident, Joel Arellano, a member of Beta Theta Pi, received a call from another member of his fraternity asking if he knew the phone number of Reams’ parents. Arellano was Reams’ roommate last year in their chapter house, located on 10th Avenue and Patterson Street. Arellano said he fell back asleep after the call, and woke in the morning to fraternity members banging on each others’ doors, calling for an emergency meeting.
Arellano said he went downstairs and learned that the meeting was about Reams.
“It was scary because we knew something was wrong,” Arellano said.
When he and his brothers learned of Reams’ condition, he said he was stunned.
“I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “I could believe that Brian was in trouble, but I couldn’t believe it could end like this.”
He said several men broke down into tears; others prodded for answers.
After the meeting, Arellano said everyone from the chapter went to Sacred Heart Medical Center to see Reams.
“No one knows what to do. All we have, and literally all we have, is each other,” Arellano said. “So we’ve just been spending the whole day with each other, talking about Brian, recalling different stories, funny things.
“The whole day has been spent being around each other … We don’t know what else to do. We just want to talk about Brian.”
Members of Beta Theta Pi stayed at Sacred Heart until roughly 2 p.m., Arellano said, when they were told by hospital staff to leave until the family had time to be with Reams.
The men returned a few hours later.
“That’s when I learned that they didn’t think Brian was going to make it,” Arellano said. “In a short while we would be given the opportunity to say good-bye to him.”
Arellano said people were allowed to say good-bye to Reams in groups of eight or nine until everyone had their chance. Arellano said he held Reams’ hand when went to see him in the hospital room, which was too small to hold all of his visitors at once.
“We really didn’t have anything to say ,” Arellano said. “He looked ready to wake up and we just wished he would.”
Erica Corns, a University student and President of Panhellenic Council, the governing body for all sororities on campus, was one of dozens of Reams’ visitors, all of whom stayed until about 9 p.m. on Sunday.
“He was just a great kid,” she said. “It’s impacting our community pretty hard. He was just an amazing guy.”
Arellano said Reams had a great sense of humor.
“We all loved to be around him. Whenever he came around he would make everybody laugh,” Arellano said. “It’s kinda funny talking about him in the past tense, but, I don’t know, I can’t imagine him now without imagining him with a smile on his face. He always made sure that everyone was having fun.”