Death of a scrapper

CHILDREN SAT, mostly silent and confused, glancing at the teens and young adults who wiped away tears inside the dark Kensington rowhouse. An infant on the couch sucked a bottle. A little girl looked at a photo of Gregory Loper on a cellphone.

"Look, here's Pop-Pop right here," the girl said excitedly. "He's right here."

There seemed to be a broken heart on every seat in every room of the sparsely furnished home on East Huntingdon Avenue yesterday.

Loper, 49, was the home's heartbeat, the figure who connected them all, supporting them any way the law would let him. On Friday night, about 6:15 p.m., he was riding his bicycle to a store after work when a Bucks County man allegedly drove a Toyota RAV4 into him near Lehigh Avenue and Jasper Street, in Kensington.

He left behind 11 children, 12 grandchildren and a grieving wife.

"This is all his family," said Bettie Cuffee, Loper's wife, as children huddled under her arms. "This is what he left behind."

The driver, Brett E. Truskin, 22, of Ivyland, was charged with homicide by vehicle while under the influence, manslaughter and other charges. A Philadelphia police spokeswoman could not confirm TV reports that Truskin had been charged with another DUI and had been involved in another accident and released shortly before the crash that killed Loper.

Authorities last night had no information about Truskin's bail status or where he was being held.

Court records show that Truskin - a former McDonald's employee, according to his Facebook page - was charged with DUI and criminal mischief stemming from an incident Thursday and was released on his own recognizance early Friday morning.

Also, according to court records, he was arrested again Friday for simple assault involving an automobile accident in what apears to be a separate incident. It was unclear when he was released for the second time Friday. WPVI-TV, citing police, reported on its website that Truskin "returned to his mother's home, borrowed her vehicle and returned to Philadelphia" - after which the fatal crash occurred.

Truskin's family did not return phone calls seeking comment yesterday.

After striking Loper, Truskin careened into other vehicles, also injuring a pizza deliveryman, cops said. Truskin wasn't injured, police said, and ran away before being subdued by a witness.