A pedestrian killed early Saturday after being hit by a car on Kirker Pass Road in east Concord was beginning to find his way in life, a lifelong friend said Monday.
Azim Sayedi, 25, was walking near Clearbook and Myrtle drives around 5 a.m. when a vehicle going south on the bypass road hit him, Concord police Sgt. Murtazah Ghaznawi said in a police statement.
Sayedi died at the scene. The Contra Costa County Coroner’s Office released his identity Monday.
An online fundraiser seeking $40,000 for “a cause in Azim’s name” had raised about $31,500 by Monday afternoon, and the fundraising goal had been increased to $75,000. The funds will go toward funeral expenses and any other causes that Sayedi supported.
“If he had $10 in his pocket, he’d give up some of it to make sure others had something,” lifelong friend Masood Shaghasi, 24, said by phone Monday.
Sayedi also had recently returned from a time in San Diego when he was helping care for his mother, Shaghasi said, adding that his friend was the first in his family to be born in the United States.
“His neighbor was my aunt,” Shaghasi said. “We grew up together with a big group of guys that hung out together. He was finding himself. Now this. It’s just hitting me all at once.”
The driver stayed at the scene after the crash and talked to officers, Ghaznawi said. Police closed Kirker Pass Road for about three hours.
