There was no punchline this time.

Greg Gutfeld paused “The Five” to tell viewers about the brutal loss of Andrew James Wimsatt, a longtime supporter who had become a real friend to people across Gutfeld’s orbit.

Wimsatt was not a celebrity. He was the man behind the scenes who showed up, helped others, clipped television appearances and never seemed to expect anything in return.

That is why the news hit the table so hard.

Watch the emotional tribute:

The Williamson County Sheriff’s Office identified Wimsatt as the 62-year-old Austin man killed in the Chandler Creek subdivision of Round Rock on September 7.

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Deputies were sent to the 2400 block of Chandler Creek Boulevard at about 11 a.m. after someone reported an injured person in the park area. Emergency personnel pronounced Wimsatt dead, and investigators classified the case as a homicide.

Authorities arrested 26-year-old Benedict Ogbodiegwu Jr. later that night and charged him with murder.

The sheriff’s office said preliminary evidence indicated the two men did not know each other and that the attack appeared to be random. The case remains active, and the charge is an allegation that must be proven in court.

FOX 7 Austin reported that an arrest affidavit describes surveillance video showing Wimsatt seated near a park bench shortly before the attack.

The affidavit alleges that a man approached him from behind with a knife and repeatedly stabbed him as Wimsatt tried to fight him off. A woman found Wimsatt with severe injuries minutes later and called 911.

Investigators followed surveillance footage from the park to a nearby McDonald’s and then to a red SUV registered to the suspect’s family, according to the report.

During a search near Ogbodiegwu’s home, detectives reportedly recovered clothing resembling what the attacker wore in the video and a knife that tested presumptively positive for blood. Those claims are part of the pending criminal case.

Gutfeld’s own response cut through the usual distance between a public figure and a viewer. He described Wimsatt as one of the sweetest, most helpful people he had ever met.

That relationship had been built over years.

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Wimsatt regularly attended Gutfeld’s shows and helped preserve clips for the people he admired. What began as fandom turned into trust, then friendship.

Kat Timpf said Wimsatt was “a fan who became a friend.” She recalled that he had driven from Austin to Fort Worth in June to see her return to the stage after the sudden death of her father.

There is something especially cruel about losing a person remembered for quietly making other people’s lives easier.

Wimsatt’s friends knew him as a generous man with a huge laugh, a sharp mind and a habit of helping without keeping score. He was also a devoted son who had reportedly visited his mother at a nursing home shortly before he was killed.

For Gutfeld, Timpf and the many people who knew Wimsatt through years of small acts of kindness, this was deeply personal.

It was the loss of one of the good ones.

Featured photograph: Greg Gutfeld at a 2012 book signing in Plano, Texas. Photo by David R. Tribble, CC BY-SA 3.0. Cropped and color-enhanced.

This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.

 

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