JK Metzker

It was a little before midnight Saturday, when I heard chatter on the newsroom scanner that a man had been struck by a hit-and-run driver near the University of Nevada, Reno’s campus. It was obvious from the sound of thing he was in bad shape.

A minute more and I heard someone clearly say, “Its Channel Two’s sports guy.”

While hearing that stunned me, I quickly started calling around to see if I could get confirmation of what I believed I had heard. It took another hour before some one told me what I was afraid I already knew.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t say anything as the information remained unconfirmed. I ended up going home that morning know who the victim was and that he was in critical condition.

It wasn’t until waking up later on Sunday, that not only did I have the correct information — that information had gone from bad to worse.  KTVN’s Sports Director, 41-year-old JK Metzker was dead from injuries received the night before.

I knew JK only in passing — many around me knew him better.

They all say he was not only a nice guy, a good family man and fantastic husband and father, but he also had a sense of humanity. I’m told that at the end of the day, he realized we all lived in a small community and because of that competition was only a job, but being decent was a committment.

Two things stand out in my conversations with his co-workers and friends: He’d have had a joke or a quip about all this fuss over his death — and he’d probably be the first to forgive the person who killed him.

Of course they speculate, while I report.

Meanwhile, the case continues as a 23-year-old Sparks man has been arrested in connection with the hit-and-run incident. Ryan Rhea is charged with one felony count of hit-and-run causing the death.

Rhea moved to the area from Carmichael, California after serving in Iraq with the Army’s 82nd Airborne. He has been going to college while living with his father in Sparks.

Investigators said alcohol appears to be a factor in the incident. They add additional charges may be filed pending results of blood tests.

Funeral services are scheduled for 2pm Friday, at Our Lady of the Snows on Wright Street. A fund has also been set up in the Metzker Family name and donations can be made at any Wells Fargo Bank.