A two-year-old child was killed last night when an allegedly drunk driver plowed into him while he was crossing the street with his mother in East Elmhurst in Queens. Officers add that the driver drove the child to the hospital before the child was pronounced dead.
Cops say Jaied Gigueroa, 2, was crossing Junction Boulevard at Northern Boulevard with his 23-year-old mother just before 10 p.m. last night, when a white SUV traveling northbound on Junction Boulevard plowed into him. The driver, 35-year-old Queens resident Gilbert Echeverria, drove Jaied and his mother to nearby Booth Memorial Hospital; the toddler was pronounced dead upon arrival.
Echeverria, who has a prior arrest record for possession of marijuana, was arrested at Booth Memorial, and reportedly admitted to drinking prior to the incident. “I had some shots and then ate some empanadas, I’m good,” he told a cop, according to the Post. He was charged today with vehicular manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and driving while intoxicated. Jaied's mother was not injured in the crash.
