Overland Park ? A 29-year-old man who tried to stop a purse-snatching in a suburban shopping mall parking lot has died of injuries he sustained when he was dragged alongside the suspect’s getaway car.

Jon U died late Wednesday of severe internal injuries at Overland Park Regional Medical Center, where he had been hospitalized since the incident May 20.

The Johnson County District Attorney’s office also said Thursday that charges against Brad Joseph Jones, 26, had been upgraded to felony murder. Jones had been charged with aggravated battery in the incident.

U was injured while trying to help Ruth Peck, 60, as she struggled with a man who wrenched her purse away from her in the parking lot. U ran after the thief and reached inside the getaway car in an effort to grab the purse.

The driver sped away, dragging U alongside. The car hit a building, and U was pinned between it and the car. He suffered severe internal injuries.

U’s effort to help Peck had prompted people who didn’t even know him to reach out to him and his family.

Peck and members of her family visited U almost every day in the hospital, and she was establishing a fund to raise money to help his family. U and his wife, Stephanie, recently had purchased a home in Olathe and were expecting their first child.

Jennifer Baker, who runs a florist shop in the shopping area where the purse-snatching occurred, did not know U before the incident. But she has been collecting money and items for a gift basket from other merchants, and also spoke with U on the telephone while he was hospitalized.

“He was always asking about other people, his beautiful wife, and Ruth (Peck),” she said Thursday. “He was always thinking about someone else.”

She said his death was a huge loss.

“I feel like his family was robbed,” she said. “They were just getting ready to start their lives, a new home, first baby. But there is good that has come out of it. That is that the community has rallied and are still going to rally, and hopefully more people are going to be involved in getting donations for his wife and unborn child.

“It doesn’t replace Jon, but I think it’s important that the community is aware that they need to watch out for one another.”