Community mourns Lake in the Hills restaurant owner hit, killed by 3 vehicles in Kane Co.: EXCLUSIVE

LAKE IN THE HILLS, Ill. (WLS) -- A northwest suburban community is mourning the loss of a well known restaurant owner days after he was hit and killed by three vehicles.

Tom Yucuis was the owner of the popular Butcher on the Block in Lake in the Hills. His family remembered him Thursday, speaking exclusively with ABC7 about the kind and loving man who was also a pillar in their community.

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This was the year Yucuis would have turned 70, the year his shop would have celebrated 25 years in the community, but now the community is rallying around the man who essentially became a part of their dinner table for generations.

The 69-year-old East Dundee father and grandfather died after multiple vehicles hit him Monday morning in Dundee Township, the Kane County Sheriff's Office said.

The sheriff's office responded just before 6 a.m. to Route 31 near Miller Road for a report that multiple vehicles had hit a pedestrian in the roadway. When police arrived, Yucuis was dead on the scene.

Witnesses said the man was walking in the southbound lanes of Route 31, wearing dark clothing, when a Chevrolet Cruze, a black Acura sedan and a grey Cadillac sedan hit him. The vehicles were driving south on Route 31, police said. They all stopped to help and called 911, police said.

A memorial was growing Thursday night outside Yucuis' Lake in the Hills restuarant.

"Everywhere I look, it's him," said Jill Yucuis, Tom Yucuis' wife.

What made the beloved Butcher on the Block wasn't just his signature cuts or sandwiches, but his signature smile he gave to anyone who walked into his Lake in the Hills shop.

"If you met him, he touched you. Somehow, someway in some form," said Brynn Zimmerman, Tom Yucuis' daughter. "There are people who meet him for the first time and they fell in love with him. They feel like they can tell him everything."

Yucuis was a butcher by trade, but his life's currency was his family.

"He just loved talking to people all the time," Jill Yucuis said.

"He always told me he was proud of me. Always," Zimmerman said. "And I'm going to miss him telling me that. I will miss him."

Yucuis also treated his customers like family.

"We would always chat and we'd block the doorway for five, 10, 15 minutes," longtime customer Andrew Bender said. "And he'd have a line of people wanting to say hi to him."

His loss is felt deep within the community he served.

"That's what this place is to many in this area, it's a place to come in and be treated like family," longtime customer Greg Zuleger said.

There is now a growing memorial from the community he built within the business he built and the family that continues to grow from his legacy.

"I know that he would not want this place to falter based on him leaving, and so that is what is going to keep me going and keep me strong and keep this going for him," Zimmerman said.

Yucuis' daughter said she has some big shoes to fill taking over his shop, but continuing his legacy through his work there will be one of her greatest ways to pay him tribute.

No citations have been issued in the crashes involved in Yucuis' death as the investigation continues.