Tyler Reece Allen was about a mile away from his Federal Way home in the early morning hours of Sept. 18. It was raining heavily and an overgrown bush blocked the sidewalk in front of him. The last thing he remembers is stepping into the roadway to walk around the bush.

Then, the 29-year-old Federal Way man was hit by an unknown driver, dragged approximately 60 feet and left in the roadway.

Police concluded that he stepped into the street to avoid the large bush shortly before 1 a.m. near the 32200 block of 11th Avenue SW. He was struck by a car and the driver fled the scene.

“The bushes were very large, and due to the rain, would have also been very wet, making a natural barrier the average person would attempt to avoid,” police reports state.

Just after 1 a.m., a person leaving their house to go to the store saw a man laying face down in the roadway and called 911.

When police arrived on scene, they found Tyler Allen unconscious with multiple injuries. He was bleeding from the head and had his clothing and property scattered, according to police reports. His shoes were found about 100 feet away from him in the roadway.

Nearby, police found several broken vehicle parts in the roadway that matched a Lincoln sedan. Police do not yet have any suspects or leads on who struck Tyler Allen, said Federal Way Police Cmdr. Casey Jones.

There were no witnesses. Debris found at the scene was researched, and officers found one piece could have come from one of two different types of Lincoln vehicles between 2009 and 2013, Jones said.

The officers followed up with a computer search on both of those types of vehicles, but nothing was located to help police identify the driver or exact car, he added.

Limited Ring camera footage from a nearby home showed a headlight bounce reflecting off of a tree in the resident’s front yard, then a few seconds later, a small black sedan drives down the street.

That night, Allen was transferred to Harborview Medical Center with life-threatening injuries and put into a medically-induced coma. As of Oct. 25, Allen’s injuries include a cheek fracture, two broken legs, a broken elbow, broken ribs, a collapsed lung and several internal injuries. He had to have his spleen and gallbladder removed, and will have surgery on his intestines in the coming months.

“I remember walking home,” said Allen on an Oct. 26 phone call, speaking from his hospital bed at Harborview. “Then I remember waking up in the hospital a week later.”

After a month-long stay in the ICU, he faces a long road of recovery. His mother said he’ll likely go to a skilled nursing facility, then into a rehabilitation facility.

“He’s got an awesome attitude, for everything that’s happened to him,” Sabrina Allen said. “I’ve been trying to convince him he wasn’t at fault … It was a freak accident.”

About 15 minutes prior to the 911 call, a neighbor told police that an unknown man — who matched Allen’s description — knocked on his door, asked for a specific address, then left.

“It’s going in the right direction,” Tyler Allen said of his healing. “I’m happy to be alive … [and] thankful this isn’t going to be forever.”

In the months prior to his accident, Tyler Allen got a new job with American Building Supply in Auburn. He said his life was taking a turn for the better.

Now, the family is waiting for new information from the police and the public about who struck Tyler Allen in September.

“They should be ashamed of themselves for leaving me to die like that,” he said of the unknown driver who hit him. “The least they could’ve done is call 911, but they didn’t even do that.”

If you have any information related to the Sept. 18 hit-and-run, contact the Federal Way Police at 253-835-2121.

Tyler Allen’s shoes and a bubble pop toy were found about 100 feet away from where his body and backpack were located along 11th Avenue SW in Federal Way on Sept. 18. Federal Way Police photo