‘HE HIT HIM ON PURPOSE’: MAN RIDING BICYCLE HIT BY PICK-UP IN MALONE
COREY LEARNED WAS HIT IN FRONT OF HIS HOME SATURDAY EVENING. WIFE CALLED 9-1-1 BEFORE SHE REALIZED IT WA HIM
MALONE, NEW YORK Aug. 1, 2026 Final Update: 12:11 AM, Aug. 2
A Malone man riding a bicycle was hit by a pick-up truck Saturday evening.
Corey Learned, 47, was hit in front his home on Duane Street. He was taken to Alice Hyde medical center, where a Life Flight helicopter was summoned for him. It was delayed by more than two hours, a family member said.
“You heard him hit him. It was loud,” eyewitness Belinda Aylor, 57, said. “Corey flew up and landed in the middle of the street.”
Aylor’s 14-year-old daughter, Lacey Recore, heard it too.
“The loudest thing I every heard in my 14 years of living,” she recalled. “I head the tires screech and I looked down and I saw his body on the ground. It was convulsing. “
Kelly Learned, 54, Corey's wife, heard a crash in front of their home and saw a man in the street.
"She called 9-1-1 not knowing it was her husband in the road," Lisa Gordon, Learned's sister-in-law, told The Free Lance News after the crash.
Gordon said her sister and Learned had two daughters.
Aylor, the eyewitness, said she happened to be on the phone with village police when she saw a grey Ford pickup truck hit Learned.
“He hit him on purpose,” Aylor claimed. “He totally hit him on purpose.”
After hitting Learned, Benjamin Monette, 21, the driver of the pick-up truck swerved, hit a curb then hit a telephone pole, Aylor said. “Dude jumped out of the truck. I didn’t see him after that until later.”
After the crash, Learned lay in the street.
“He was breathing, but he was gurgling,” Aylor said. “He was bleeding bad.”
That’s when a quick-thinking passerby took his belt off and put it around Learned’s bleeding leg, Aylor said. She also said Learned had a massive head injury.
The bicycle Corey Learned was riding when he was hit by a pick-up truck driven by Benjamin Monette. Photo credit: JB Nicholas.
Aylor said that, after the crash, Monette tried to claim another car had been coming that contributed to the crash.
“But there wasn't,” she said. “There was no car coming.”
About an hour after the crash, Monette was standing in the street with police and two associates.
“He’s a Monette so he’s probably gonna get away with it,” Gordon, Learned’s sister-in-law, said.
(However, later in the evening, a couple who identified themselves as Benjamin’s parents told The Free Lance News they were not the Monettes “that own everything.” See below.)
Aylor, the eyewitness, insisted Learned have justice. Referring to the driver of the pick-up truck, “I don't care who he is.”
A damaged bicycle missing its front wheel was in the grass beside the road, along with a sneaker the victim had been wearing. Police covered the blood in the street with foam from a fire extinguisher.
Police declared the area a crime scene, and ordered this reporter to leave.
Later, Gordon said doctors told the family Learned would survive, but would likely be paralyzed. 2 ½ hours after the crash, a helicopter flew over Malone headed east to a better hospital.
Corey Shannon Monette, Benjamin’s father, contacted The Free Lance News late Saturday evning to demand “You need to take that down right now. Because I’m telling you right now, you will face … You don’t have the right to say what happened or that he did this on purpose. It was a fucking accident.”
“I’m not playing with you,” the man threatened.
The man’s wife, who did not identify herself, added “I know that my son was trying to save that man’s life.”
She also said, “We’re not the Monettes that own everything.”
The Monettes declined an invitation to make a statement for the record.
No one answered the door at the village police station when The Free Lance News visited to find out whether any charges had been filed against Monette or if he was even given a traffic ticket.
Monette was traveling south on Duane Street when he hit Learned. The exact spot is at the top of a small, blind hill. Drivers frequently speed down that stretch of Duane, even though houses with families with children line the street on each side there.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this report stated Monette was put in the back of a police car and driven away. Three Malone village police officers visited this reporter at his home at midnight to clarify he was not.
Send tips or corrections to jasonbnicholas@gmail.com or, if you prefer, thefreelancenews@proton.me