NYPD: 18-year-old arrested in hit-and-run that killed 16-year-old in Astoria
NEW YORK -- An arrest has been made in a fatal hit-and-run in Queens on Monday night.
Detectives said Tuesday 16-year-old Jaydan McLaurin was on a CitiBike e-bike traveling northbound in Astoria to a docking station just before 9:30 p.m. when he was killed.
Security video shows the teen on the bike on 21st Street. At some point detectives say he appeared to ride diagonally across the intersection near 21st Avenue when he was struck by a BMW SUV heading southbound.
A witness told CBS2, "When you see it happen, you definitely feel it."
Another man ran out of a nearby supermarket to try to help.
"There was a guy already like checking his pulse on his wrist, but he was like, 'It's very little, very little,'" the man said. "So I put my ear directly on his chest."
He said an ambulance arrived shortly after.
Police say the SUV was found unoccupied a short time later at 23rd Street and 22nd Drive. The driver, 18-year-old Yaser Ibrahim of Levittown, was identified and then taken into custody. The charges he is facing include leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death, a windshield tint violation, and operating a motor vehicle without a license.
McLaurin was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead.
Neighbors at the apartment building McLaurin lived in nearly two miles away are devastated. One said he was coming back from playing basketball when he was killed.
"Jaydan just was a pleasant young man," a neighbor said. "If you ever see Jaydan, he always had a basketball on his back."
Candles were placed at the court in the complex and in front of the building.
"He'd help anybody. He helped the elderly. He gives back to the community," the neighbor said. "To see a young man's life taken so early. You know, he didn't get to see life and enjoy life. It's heartbreaking."
NYPD officers and Department of Transportation workers were at the scene Tuesday talking to bicyclists about safety.
A candlelight vigil is planned for Tuesday night in front of McLaurin's building.