❒ Victim was celebrating 39th birthday with twin brother

Friends and neighbors are mourning the loss of a Benicia resident who had been celebrating his 39th birthday with his twin brother and friends when he was struck and killed by a motorist Friday night.

Arlen Ingle was hit by a 2013 Toyota pickup truck as he was crossing the street in the 1500 block of East Fifth Street, Lt. Mike Greene of Benicia Police Department said. Ingle later died of his injuries at Kaiser Permanente, Vallejo.

Witnesses told police that the truck, driven by a 43-year-old woman whose name police did not release, was traveling north on East Fifth Street when it hit Ingle as he walked east from the west sidewalk just as it started to rain.

“There is no crosswalk at the collision site, and no other traffic control devices played a role in the collision,” Greene said.

The driver is cooperating with police, he said, and the accident is being investigated by the department’s traffic division.

Arlen’s widow, Melissa, told The Herald on Monday that her husband was devoted to her and their two daughters, Eva, who turned 12 Monday, and Emily, 5. He called the three “his girls,” she said, adding that their daughters were “the love of his life. He loved all three of us.”

She said the two met in 1997 at Benicia High School, and on their first date Arlen said the two would get married, which they had been for 15 years. The two families have been close as well, she said.

Melissa wasn’t with her husband the day he died. She and her mother had gone on a shopping trip that lasted until early in the morning, and Melissa became ill. However, she had planned her customary separate birthday celebration for Arlen, one he didn’t have to share with his twin brother, Damian Ingle.

She said the two said “I love you” before he left for his party, and he called his wife at 7:30 p.m. to check on her and to ask if she might join them. “I said no,” she said.

Arlen, Damian and several friends chose to walk rather than drive to the Bottom of the Fifth for dinner and drinks Friday night, she said. “They were being responsible,” Melissa said.

After dinner, Arlen, Damian and their friends started the three-block return trip when Arlen and one friend dropped into a liquor store for ice cream.

They were crossing the street when Arlen was struck, sending him airborne. He flipped twice before hitting the ground, Melissa said she was told by witnesses.

After he was hit Arlen was breathing but unconscious. He was rushed to the hospital, and members of his family were called.

Initially, Melissa was told her husband had been hurt in an accident. A family friend called, too, saying, “You need to get there now.”

By the time she arrived, Arlen had died.

A security guard at the hospital met her and started to lead her to a separate room. Melissa told her, “I know what that room means, and I don’t want to go into that room.” That’s when friends confirmed that she had lost her husband, telling her, “He didn’t make it.”

She recalled seeing Arlen’s body through the hospital room glass, begging for further resuscitation measures and slumping to the floor.

“I don’t remember much after that,” she said.

Her husband and his brother had worked side by side as glaziers in San Francisco, installing windows in the city’s high-rise buildings. “They worked together on the same job,” Melissa said.

She called Arlen “amazing. He loved to help people. He’d be the first person to be there to help.”

A family friend had additional praise for him.

“Arlen was a stand-up guy and had lots of friends in Benicia,” said Ralph Jefferson Jr., a Benicia hip-hop and rap artist who performs under the name Jack Nastie.

Six years younger than the Ingle twins, he recalled the years when the brothers were his neighbors and welcomed him when he came to visit.

Arlen had a “high-energy” personality and was a sports fan, Melissa said. He loved the San Francisco Giants and the Philadelphia Eagles. He even traveled to Pennsylvania to watch his team play, she said.

His brother, Damian, is a 49ers fan, and the two would place friendly bets on the outcome of games, daring each other to shave their heads or pay similar penalties when one of the teams lost to the other, Melissa said.

But Arlen didn’t stay on the sidelines, she said: He was a shortstop on a men’s softball team in the Wednesday Night League, and he also liked to scuba dive and fish.

With the help of friends, Melissa managed to have a 12th birthday dinner Monday for her daughter Eva, with about 30 attending. It’s what Arlen would have wanted, she said.

She spoke admiringly of her elder daughter. “She’s being so strong.” Their youngest, Emily, “knows Daddy’s in heaven” but still asked her mother “why she can’t talk to her daddy.”

Melissa said in the midst of dealing with the loss of his brother, Damian has promised to be present in the girls’ lives, and, at their weddings, to walk them down the aisle in his brother’s stead.

Meanwhile, Melissa has made a promise of her own: to campaign for a pedestrian crosswalk where her husband was hit.

“I’m going to fight for this,” she vowed, saying that from the 7-Eleven store to the top of the hill, there is no safe place to cross East Fifth Street.

Arlen was the sole supporter of his family, and a Go Fund Me online fundraising account has been set up to help Melissa and her daughters.

“Many of us have felt connected to Arlen’s sweet spirit and our small community of Benicia will grieve his loss alongside his family,” friends wrote when they set up the account. “Let’s help give them a gentler time through their grief by providing them some support.”

Donations are being accepted at www.gofundme.com/i0j1y0?pc=mb_em.