HAGERSTOWN, Md. (AP) — An Owings Mills man struck by a car along Interstate 70 Sunday was returning from West Virginia where he had entertained hundreds of children during a weekend festival.
Leonard Robinson, 51, was known for masquerading as Batman to bring cheer to sick children. He was driving what Maryland State Police described as a replica of the 1960s era Batmobile Sunday and had parked the vehicle partially in the driving lane while he checked the engine of the custom vehicle when he was killed.
Police said Robinson’s car was uninsured and wore a Maryland license, “4BATMAN,” that was issued to another vehicle.
Robinson had left for home Sunday afternoon after meeting hundreds of children over the weekend at the city’s Summerfest, two daycare centers and a library. It was his third visit, said Sharen Sumpter-Deitz, a board member of the South Charleston, West Virginia, Convention and Visitors Bureau.
“He always told the children how much he valued them and how good they were and that everything they did meant something,” she said. “He made them feel like they were the most important person in the whole wide world when he was talking to them.”
DC Entertainment, the Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. unit that owns Batman, said it was aware of Robinson’s work and had no objections. The company posted a message on the official Batman Facebook page: “Our thoughts are with the family and friends of Leonard Robinson, who shared his love of Batman with everyone around him.”
He averaged 18 visits a year to hospitals, schools and charity events, handing out toys and T-shirts, giving “Batman” autographs and discouraging kids from bullying, according to his website and his father, Larry Robinson.
“To see these children, the smiles that come onto their faces — it was like a miracle for these children,” Larry Robinson said.
Robinson, co-owner of an appliance repair business in Falls Church, Virginia, began visiting hospitalized children in 2001, according to Robinson’s website, www.superheroesforkids.org.
He gained national attention in 2012 when dashcam video surfaced of police in Silver Spring, Maryland, pulling him over while he was driving his black Lamborghini dressed as Batman. Robinson traded the Lamborghini for the Batmobile replica later that year.
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Associated Press writer Sarah Brumfield in Washington, D.C., and researcher Jennifer Farrar in New York contributed to this report.
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