Authorities have identified 59-year-old Kevin Evans as the man who died Tuesday morning after being struck by a semi-truck in West Long Beach.

Police say Evans was riding his bicycle at around 9:16 a.m. along Pacific Coast Highway and Harbor Avenue when he fell off and was hit by the semi-truck. The driver failed to stop after the fact, and police have not yet located the person.

Evans died at the scene, three days shy of his 60th birthday.

His friends told the Post that he was on his way to get coffee and then go volunteer before his death.

“This is a major loss to our entire community,” said Duke Givens, Evans’ friend, and founder of the nonprofit Care Closet Long Beach where Evans volunteered. “We’re all broken right now.” 

Evans was born on Feb. 17, 1963, and grew up in California. His friends recall often hearing his stories about the concerts he’d been to at the Long Beach Arena.

He loved music and especially liked listening to The Beatles.

“He was a library of music,” Givens said, adding that Evans always had a big speaker with him to listen to his tunes.

More than 20 years ago, Evans grew tired of the stresses of having to pay a mortgage and utilities, so he decided to leave that behind to pursue a “camping” lifestyle, his friends said.

Eventually, with the support of Care Closet Long Beach, Evans was able to use his experiences to help others, especially homeless residents, going through tough situations, Given said.

“We came up with the model of the unhoused helping the unhoused,” Givens said. “The model we’ve created is because of Kevin’s energy and love and willingness to support Long Beach in that way.

At least five days a week, Evans could be found volunteering to pick up trash around the city, and assisting homeless residents with whatever they needed, his friends said.

Blair Cohn, the executive director of the Bixby Knolls Business Improvement Association, said Evans was a tremendous help to the community and had a work ethic that is hard to find.

In the time Evans spent volunteering in Bixby Knolls, his working relationship with Cohn grew into a great friendship. ​​

They’d have conversations about music and what it was like to “live by the river,” Cohn said.

“He gave us quite an education,” Cohn said.

Cohn last saw Evans on Monday after a day of volunteering. They waved and Cohn told him to stay safe out there.

“You never know when’s the last time you’re going to see somebody,” Cohn said. “The presence of absence is what we will feel every day.”

Evan’s girlfriend, Kathy Robertshaw remembers him as a selfless community member who always put others first, even if it meant he’d have to give something away to help.

“I’ll just get another one,” Robertshaw recalls him saying.

The pair met for the first time 15 years ago on the Los Angeles River bicycle trail and they hit it off. They became good friends and have been dating for the last four years.

Evans, Robertshaw said, was always fun-loving, took care of her, and had a reputation around the encampment where they lived together as someone who knew how to fix pretty much anything.

“We got along pretty well, ” Robertshaw said. “I didn’t try to suffocate him and he didn’t try to suffocate him… we trusted each other.”

Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic, Evans and Robertshaw felt like the city was being neglected and trash wasn’t being picked up.

They got “sick of looking at that,” Robertshaw said, and so multiple times a week, they’d take it upon themselves to visit Cressa Park near their encampment and clean it up.

At Care Closet Long Beach, the two were part of a team that spearheaded cleanups citywide and picked up more than one million pounds of trash.

“Every day he came home he talked about work,” said Robertshaw. “He really did enjoy it.”

When Evans didn’t come home Tuesday night, Robertshaw didn’t think much about it because he had stayed out in the past collecting cans and other recyclable items.

But at some point throughout the day, someone returned to the encampment and told her about a crash where a bicyclist had died just on the other side of the river, Robertshaw said.

As soon as that person described the details of the bike to her, Robertshaw knew the bicyclist was Evans.

“We’re shocked that something like that would happen to him,” Robertshaw said. “It doesn’t even feel real yet.” 

Police investigate hit-and-run that left bicyclist dead along PCH