Results tagged “hitandrun”

Bronx resident Sanija Kurtovic is eight months pregnant, and she got quite a scare the other day when her parked car was sideswiped as she was about to get out. But what's even scarier is that the vehicle that hit her was an NYPD cruiser, and the driver allegedly fled the scene. Kurtovic says that after her car was hit, she ran up to Officer Shirley Perez-Romero, who was stopped at a red light. But the cop allegedly played dumb, acting as if she didn't realize an accident had occured. Kurtovic says the officer told her she would do a U-turn and file a report, but instead Officer Perez-Romero just drove off.

The tow truck driver who witnessed a driver hit a pedestrian and then drive away on Monday night continued to tell his story about embarking on a high-speed chase to nab the suspect. According to the Daily News, Peter Dinome pursued the driver "for nearly 8 miles through the Bronx, desperately weaving in and out of traffic as he tried to catch the suspect." Dinome admitted, "At times I was going 120, 130, I was moving," and also told the News that suspect Michael "Fennell drove the wrong direction down several one-way streets while trying to lose him." Dinome said of his actions, "I couldn't let someone die right before my eyes and let him get away. I'm not a hero - I just did a thing that I thought was right," and claims a cop offered to pay for his upcoming speeding ticket (since he was caught on a red-light camera), "All the cops were patting me on the back." Fennell was charged with leaving the scene of an accident; the victim, Braulio Lopez-Cruz, is in serious but stable condition at Jacobi Hospital.

WCBS 2 spoke to a tow truck driver who decided to chase down a Nissan Maxima driver who apparently hit a pedestrian and left the scene. Peter Dinome said, "The pedestrian was crossing the street. He had the right of way. As I started to chase [the Nissan's driver] he took me down Gun Hill Road. After I got down Gun Hill Road, I swung a u-turn. He took me back onto 95-South, down Pelham Parkway West, through the grass at 80mph. I'm doing 100 down the one way blocks. After that I lost him on Crosby Avenue, I'm coming back to where it happened, and there he comes running a red light. I stopped him there and I dragged him out of the car." Dinome added the driver said, "'I'm sorry,' he started crying and he wouldn't stop crying. I told him, 'did you realize what you just did?' And he goes, 'yeah, I'm sorry.'" The pedestrian, whose name hasn't been released, is in serious condition. The police say witnesses should call the cops and not take matters into their own hands.

A Bronx father of three was struck by a car last night in Hunts Point around 11:15 p.m. and is now in critical condition. According to 1010WINS, "Octavio Reyes, 58...was hit after he parked his car and then attempted to cross Bruckner Blvd. on his way home... The vehicle -- described as a black Lincoln Town Car -- was traveling southbound on Bruckner Blvd. when the crash occurred." The car apparently has heavy windshield damage. Police are investigating the hit-and-run and urge anyone with information to contact them.

Yesterday morning, a woman was struck by a SUV as she was crossing Amsterdam Avenue near West 145th Street. The victim, identified as Debbie Evans, was initially reported as dead—the Daily News reported, "The impact - which knocked Evans out of her shoes - instantly killed the mother of two, police said." However, WABC 7 says the 48-year-old woman is in a coma (the NYPD just told us, per their latest update from yesterday, that Evans was in critical condition; they are still waiting for today's update). At any rate, police are searching for the driver of a gray or silver SUV. One witness told the News, "I saw an SUV hit her, a little old lady walking across the street... The car was going faster than it should be; she never saw him. It's a travesty." Related: We're hearing some reports that a pedestrian was struck at Amsterdam near West 143rd around 7:30 a.m. this morning.

[Update: Some reports indicate that the victim is in critical condition after the crash.] Early this morning around 3:15 a.m., a woman was struck by a vehicle on Amsterdam Avenue near West 145th Street. WABC 7 reports, "According to one witness, the victim never had a chance to get out of the way of a car that was moving rapidly on Amsterdam Ave. The impact was so powerful, it sent the woman flying 10 to 15 feet in the air." The vehicle didn't stop and the police are looking for the driver. Witnesses say the vehicle was a silver or gray SUV; one of its side mirrors fell off and was recovered by the scene. The victim, who was in her 50s, had apparently been at a nearby restaurant with a friend before the incident occurred.

A fatal hit-and-run accident in Flushing left the victim's body in such bad shape, authorities had to obtain dental records to identify that it was 30-year-old Matthew Kim. Kim had returned to his Flushing home earlier Thursday night after going out for drinks with friends—the Post says that he was helping console a friend who had just recently lost his mother. Kim, a former architecture student who now worked in construction and taught Sunday school, was nearly decapitated after being hit by a driver making a U-turn while walking on 149th place. A person walking their dog at 3:30 a.m. spotted his body and told the News, "I couldn't imagine any human being leaving someone like that."

A toddler is in critical condition after being struck last night by a hit-and-run driver in the Woodhaven section of Queens. A two-year-old girl wandered away from her house where she was with family around 9:30 p.m. and found her way onto the Rockaway Boulevard and 185th Street intersection where she was hit. The vehicle drove off and the girl remained lying in the street until another driver spotted her and called police. The girl was rushed off to Jamaica Hospital where she remains in critical condition. No witnesses were able to get a description of the vehicle. Police urge anyone with information to call, text or visit the Crime Stoppers website.

There's no blood on the hands of the NYPD, as usual. On Monday night the 94th Precinct held a community meeting that touched upon the fatal hit and run in Greenpoint on April 27th. Streetsblog reports that the officers denied that a high-speed chase led to the death of 38-year-old local mom Violetta Kryzak.

Police and the family of a man who is hospitalized after hit and run accident in Queens Saturday night are asking the public for help in tracking down the driver. Bernard Sebastian was outside the Crowne Plaza hotel when a car "came out of nowhere" and slammed into him, sending the 225-pound man flying through the air after possibly shattering the windshield. Friends who were with him say they saw no skid marks and no brake lights, suggesting that the driver may not have hit the brakes before the collision. Sebastian, a father of one with a second child on the way, was lucky to survive, but is still recovering in Elmhurst Hospital. Unfortunately, the description of the vehicle is vague; one witness tells CBS2, "It was a smaller, like a mid-sized, two- or four-door vehicle, dark... They ran him over, cold-blooded, and just kept moving." Police are asking anyone with information on the crash to contact CrimeStoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.

Last night around 6 p.m., a 14-year-old on a bicycle was hit by two vehicles. First, a Lincoln Navigator hit him near 60 West 142nd Street. WCBS 2 reports, "The impact sent the teenager flying up in the air and straight into another vehicle"—a tan Chevrolet SUV—"traveling in the other direction, west on 142nd Street." The Navigator's driver got out to help the teen, "but the other vehicle just kept on going west on 142nd Street." The boy is in critical condition at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. Police are looking for witnesses and information about the Chevrolet SUV's driver and asking people to call CrimeStoppers at 1-888-577-TIPS.

As rumored, the hit and run in Greenpoint yesterday afternoon didn't end well. The woman hit while crossing Manhattan Avenue and India Street was 38-year-old Violetta Krzyzak, who later died at Bellevue Hospital. The Daily News reports that she "landed yards away, near the corner of Huron Street, the same block where she lived with her husband and at least one daughter." One shop owner on the street commented on the impact, saying, "Her handbag was in front of my store and her body was at the end of the block." It was 28-year-old Jose Maldonado who ran a red light in an allegedly stolen minivan and hit Krzyzak. Witnesses say an unmarked police car was tailing the minivan, and while they stopped after the hit and run, Maldonado kept going only to crash into the parked cars. His record includes other arrests for stealing cars and he currently awaits charges while at Woodhull Hospital with a broken toe.

An alert came over the newswire not long ago regarding an accident investigation at Manhattan Avenue and India Street in Greenpoint, where at least one victim has been transported to Bellevue Hospital. A reader has just sent in the above photo, and we're hearing rumors that "the driver of one of the vehicles struck a woman on Huron Street and was fleeing the scene, and caused this pile up. From what the police were saying, it appears that the woman in critical condition at this scene was an occupant of one of the cars on the bottom of the pile."

Police arrested a 27-year-old man suspected for a fatal-hit-and-run that killed a Chinese food deliveryman after following the trail of anti-freeze from the crash site to the driver's home. Gus Pappaeliou is also suspected of being drunk during the Saturday incident.

Good morning, two pedestrians died in separate hit-and-run accidents last night, adding to a mini-wave of crash-and-dash fatalities this week. The first horrible incident took place on the so-called Boulevard of Death—Queens Boulevard—in Forest Hills around 9 p.m. An unidentified woman in her mid-20s was hit by a car at the intersection and was pronounced DOA at Elmhurst Hospital; police tell CBS 2 they have no description of the vehicle. Just an hour later, in Hell's Kitchen, a second unidentified woman in her mid-50s was struck by a car at the intersection of 40th Street and 9th Avenue. Again, she was pronounced DOA at St. Vincent's, and cops have no description of the vehicle. And police are still searching for the driver of a dark colored van that killed 71-year-old Virginia Montalvo in Woodhaven Monday night; she was out on her nightly stroll collecting recyclables to raise money to charity when she died. Here's a website that sells reflective safety vests and wristbands, and they'll ship directly to you so you won't have to tempt fate by leaving your apartment.

The NYPD is asking for help in finding the driver of a van that fatally struck a 71-year-old woman in the Woodhaven section of Queens. The incident occurred on Monday night around 10:24 p.m., when Virginia Montalvo was pushing a shopping cart full of recyclable material across Jamaica Avenue near 98th Street. Police believe the driver was speeding; a witness told the Daily News, "The driver had to know they hit someone, but they just kept driving like they had no soul... The driver struck the woman dead and didn't even hesitate." Montalvo was later pronounced dead a hospital; she lived just two blocks away with her daughter's family. Though she didn't need to collect cans and bottles (and her family apparently warned her not to collect at night), her son-in-law explained to the NY Times, "She went and did her collections to keep herself busy, so as not to be bored sitting at home." Witnesses are asked to contact CrimeStoppers,1-800-577-TIPS or email.

Police are still looking for tips any witnesses might have to help apprehend a hit-and-run driver who struck and killed a Queens mother Thursday night. Li Qun Fang was hit around 9:30 p.m. on the way back to her Flushing home from work. She had the light when she began crossing Kissena Boulevard, but when it changed with her still in the street, the driver of a white Honda Civic with tinted windows accelerated through without stopping.

After much speculation that a light sentence was coming, yesterday a Manhattan court finalized the plea bargain deal that will allow George Anderson get out of jail after a sentence of a mere 15 days for the hit-and-run death of Florence Cioffi. Anderson, a Wall Street CEO, was reportedly drunk at the time of the accident, but his blood alcohol levels were not checked until he was in custody hours later. Outside the court room, Cioffi's fiance told reporters, "The arm of the law was not present in this case."

The Staten Island hit-and-run case last weekend that left a couple dead has been reopened after evidence surfaced that police were chasing down the black Mercedes driven by Theodore Ricks before he ran into the livery cab where Mohamed Elnahal and Mervat Saad Ibrahim lost their lives. The NYPD had twice denied that Internal Affairs was involved with any investigation, but now have confirmed that such a probe is under way.

A new twist in the tragic hit-and-run that claimed the lives of a livery cab driver and his wife. A lawyer for the suspect, Theodore Ricks—whose driver's license was revoked four times and suspended 17 times—suggests his client was the victim of the NYPD's racial profiling and that the police had been chasing him, causing him to slam into Mohamed Elnahal's car. The Staten Island Advance has video showing a police car with its lights on, following a black car: "If the vehicle in the video is indeed the Mercedes, the footage would support witness claims that [Ricks] was tailed on four nearby residential streets right before the crash, something police have denied." Cops claim they followed Ricks because his car's windows were too darkly tinted and suggest that Ricks sped away because he did not have a license and his passenger had pot. In the meantime, a donation fund has been created for Elnahal's now orphaned sons; the Daily News says donations can be made in Kareem and Omar Elnahal's names at any Chase branch.

The 13-year-old twin boys whose parents were killed in a hit-and-run on Staten Island this weekend will be moving into their new home with their nearby aunt and uncle, unable to attend their parents' funeral in Cairo. The News photographed Omar and Kareem Elnahal holding whittled off the pieces of wood from their parents' coffins a day after they had learned of the deaths. Relatives first told the boys only that there had been an accident, then that their parents were in a coma before finally breaking the tragic news to them. Meanwhile Theodore Ricks, the 24-year-old driver with a four-times revoked and 17-times suspended license is being held without bail. He told cops that the late livery cab driver and his wife should have been wearing seat belts. His lawyer denies that his client fled the scene, claiming he was trapped by an airbag and then led to the victims' bodies as cops yelled at him, "This is what you did!" Donations for Omar and Kareem can be sent to Al Ihsan Mosque, 406 St. Marks Place, Staten Island, N.Y. 10301.

13-year-old twin brothers Oman and Kareem Elnahal are mourning the loss of their parents, Mohamed Elnahal and Mervat Saad Ibrahim, the livery cab driver and his wife who were killed in a hit-and-run crash yesterday on Staten Island. A friend and fellow cab driver told the SI Advance, "What are you going to do? You try and make a decent living, but sometimes life takes a different way." The driver of the black Mercedes that struck the couple, 24-year-old Theodore Ricks, has had his license revoked four times previously and suspended another 17. His passenger, 25-year-old William Knight (arrested on marijuana possession), revealed to police that they had sped through a red light going over 50mph before the crash occurred. The two were on their way to pick up some women before returning to the Bay Street Saloon, where they had been hanging out. The New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers has called for an increase in hit-and-run penalties from two to five years.

A hit-and-run crash on Staten Island left two people dead and another in critical condition in the wee hours of Saturday morning. The 52-year-old male livery cab driver and a 50-year-old female passenger in the front seat were killed and 54-year-old female passenger in the backseat was taken to Richmond University Medical Center after the cab was struck by a black Mercedes at Victory Boulevard and Cebra Avenue around 1:30 a.m. Police eventually tracked down and arrested 24-year-old Theodore Ricks for leaving the scene and his passenger William Knight for marijuana possession. A witness told the Daily News, "One of them was yelling something like a maniac. They didn't even look at the car to see if the people were all right. They didn't think to call 911. They just began running."

Police are looking for the driver of a white SUV that struck a woman and two children they crossed the intersection at Avenue H and Utica Avenue in East Flatbush. According to WABC 7, "The pedestrians were crossing a street" when the SUV hit them and took off. "The three were then struck by a second vehicle." The driver of the second vehicle stayed at the scene and was charged with driving with a suspended license. The woman and 11-year-old boy are in stable condition while the 8-year-old is in critical condition.

A drunk off-duty Jersey City cop has been revealed to be the driver of an early Saturday morning hit and run near Battery Park City that killed one woman and left her boyfriend in critical but stable condition. 25-year-old Martin Abreu, a fourth year officer, was charged with vehicular manslaughter and assault and driving while intoxicated. He has also been suspended without pay. 26-year-olds Marilyn Feng and Dennis Loffredo were struck at around 3:40 a.m. on their way home from a night of dancing. They had been taking tango lessons weekly and parents of Loffredo thought that the two would get married. Loffredo's mother donates to Mothers Against Drunk Driving. She told the News, "I think next year I'm going to donate even more."

A weekend before she was the begin her first job since graduating from law school, a 25-year-old woman was killed after being hit by a car in lower Manhattan. Marilyn Feng, a recent NYU Law grad, was walking home with her boyfriend at 3:40 a.m. this morning, when the pair was struck by a Toyota Camry while crossing West Street near Battery Park City. The driver was taken into custody and a police source told the Daily News that alcohol is suspected. Feng's boyfriend, Dennis Loffredo, ended up with a broken leg as a result of the accident. His father told the News, "Marilyn is a delightful girl. Everyone who met her loved her...(She) was studying hard for the bar exam in July....and was excited about getting her career started." Loffredo has still not learned of his girlfriend of a year's death as he was knocked unconscious after his injuries stemming from the accident.

Some more details about Kenneth Guyear, the man charged with fatally striking two pedestrians with a stolen car on Sunday. Guyear said in his videotape confession, "I had five or six drinks and took two Xanax pills. I stole the car that was parked on the street. I drove the car and saw the pedestrian but I didn't think I hit anybody. I kept driving and then stopped the car and looked for blood on the car. I kept driving and the police stopped me." The Daily News reports that he allegedly said to a black police officer, "I will have your job,. For a black cop, you just follow what the white guy tells you to do." Guyear, who was held without bail, has a previous arrest for, per the Post, "unauthorized use of a car while drunk." Brendan Ogle, whose 16-year-old son was killed, said, "I hope there's enough public outcry to put this guy and guys like him behind bars."

The early Sunday morning hit-and-run incident in Queens has claimed another victim: 20-year-old Alex Paul died at Elmhurst Hospital; his friend, 16-year-old Robert Ogle, was pronounced dead on the scene. The pair had been walking home from a party when a man driving a stolen car struck them at 62nd Avenue and 80th Street.

The police arrested a teenager in connection with the Friday hit-and-run, where a black Mercedes jumped a curb and crashed into a tree, alsohitting two brothers walking on the sidewalk. WCBS 2 reports that Samuel Branch, 18, was charged with "unlicensed driving and leaving the scene of an accident." Branch allegedly denied the charges, telling reporters while led from the precinct, "I was trying to help those kids," referring to 16-year-old Dwayne Jackson and 4-year-old Dillon Jackson. The Daily News says that the pre-K student was given a blood transfusion and "had pins inserted in his leg and will need six to eight weeks to recover." And the Post spoke to Dwayne, who suffered a broken arm when trying to protect Dillon from the car; the big brother said his pain was "nothing compared to my brother being alive."

For the second time in less than thirty-six hours, a city teenager was struck by a hit-and-run driver. 16-year-old Robert Ogle was fatally hit at Eliot Avenue and 80th Street in the Middle Village section of Queens at around 1:30 a.m. this morning. The car had been stolen while parked in front of a nearby deli. Police picked up the driver, a 27-year-old man, at Dry Harbor Road and Woodhaven Boulevard not far from the scene of the crime. They believe that he may have been drunk. Ogle was pronounced dead at the scene. A second victim, a 20-year-old man is in critical condition at Elmhurst Hospital. On Friday afternoon, two brothers were injured by a car that jumped the curb in Bed-Stuy.