Oct 26, 2005 By Steve Ferris 3 min read

Uniontown police Tuesday filed a charge of homicide by vehicle against the young pizza delivery driver who was driving with a suspended driver’s license when he allegedly struck former local radio personality Jack McMullen. The charge was against Brandon S. Doyle, 20, of Uniontown. Police said Doyle will be allowed to turn himself at Magisterial District Justice Mark Blair’s office for his arraignment.

McMullen, 85, of Uniontown died Oct. 19 in Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown, W.Va., from injuries he suffered on Oct. 7 when a car struck him as he was walking across West Main Street in downtown Uniontown.

Doyle turned himself in to face the charges already filed in connection with the accident and he waived his right to a preliminary hearing into those charges last week. He was allowed to remain free on his own recognizance.

The original charges were accidents involving death or personal injury and accidents involving death of personal injury while not properly licensed as well as summary Motor Vehicle Code violations including duty to give information and render aid, driving with a suspended license, reckless driving and careless driving.

Doyle told police that he was reading a delivery slip while delivering a pizza when the accident occurred at just before 7 p.m., according to an affidavit of probable cause.

He said he looked at the road and saw a man directly in front of him, but could not stop before hitting him, police said.

He parked nearby, walked back to the scene and called 911 from the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 47, police said.

However, he told police he got scared when he realized how severe the man’s injuries were and left, police said. McMullen had broken bones or fractures in his arm, shin, hip and collarbone and cuts on his head.

Many Fayette County residents knew McMullen as a disc jockey and newsman for WMBS Radio, where he worked from 1945 until the early 1960s. He worked for several local radio stations after that.

He also was the executive director of the Fayette County Redevelopment Authority and head of the Uniontown Bureau of Community Development.

“Everyone in Uniontown knew him,” said his son and namesake John A. “Jack’ McMullen, who remembered his dad as “the most loving father possible.”

“He coached my little league team. He stayed up and typed my school papers,” said John last week after his father died.

His son, who teaches acting at colleges in California, said his father took part in his interest in theater early on.

He remembered being asked to write some narration that was used between scenes during a William Shakespeare presentation at Uniontown High School and his father helped him write the narrative.

He said his father and mother, Carolyn Joan Ciarlo McMullen, took him to plays in New York City when he was a young man. They flew to California to visit him a couple times a year, he said.

He remembers his father telling him that he was struck by “the thunderbolt” the first time he met Carolyn and the couple was married soon after.

Along with his son and wife, McMullen is survived by his niece and goddaughter Deborah Dawson.

VFW Post 47 held a military service for McMullen on Saturday.