An upstate New York man who authorities say was intentionally struck by a driver in the parking lot of a Walmart last month has died, the New York State Police said Tuesday.
Michael Bushey, 69 of Saratoga Springs, was one of two Walmart employees run over by an alleged shoplifter on the evening of Oct. 16.
Timothy W. Besaw, 34, of Gansevoort, was stopped by an employee at the Walmart in Wilton around 11 p.m. after he reportedly tried to leave the store with stolen merchandise, state troopers said in a news release.
Besaw returned the items he was carrying but still left the store wearing merchandise he allegedly hadn’t paid for. He was then confronted by a Walmart employee in the parking lot, and the two got into a verbal altercation, after which he got into his vehicle and struck the two employees.
Besaw fled the area but crashed nearby and was taken into custody by Saratoga County Sheriff’s Office deputies. He was charged with assault, vehicular assault, driving while intoxicated and related offenses, and was booked into the Saratoga County Jail on $1 million bond.
Bushey and the other Walmart employee, who has not been identified, sustained “serious but non-life-threatening injuries,” troopers said at the time.
Bushey was airlifted to Albany Medical Center to be treated for a broken hip, pelvis and wrist, as well as several broken ribs, his daughter, Brittany Sanders, told local NBC affiliate WYNT.
On Monday, Sanders wrote on a GoFundMe page set up on behalf of the family that her father “took a sudden, unexpected turn today and went into cardiac arrest shortly after stating he was having a hard time breathing.”
Bushey, described as a “healthy and very active” person, was scheduled to be released from the hospital “within the next couple days,” Sanders wrote. He was planning to enter into rehabilitation and then go “home, where he belonged.”
