Grandmother killed, 8-year-old boy among 4 injured after driver strikes pedestrians in Brooklyn
NEW YORK -- A grandmother is dead and a child is critically injured after a driver struck multiple pedestrians in Brooklyn on Saturday.
Police say it happened just after 7 p.m. at Macon Street and Ralph Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
According to police, a sergeant and two police officers were patrolling on Ralph Avenue when they spotted a vehicle with mismatched plates. They said two people inside the vehicle also appeared to be smoking marijuana.
Officers turned on their lights and pulled the vehicle over, but when they got out of the patrol car and began to approach it, the driver of the vehicle sped off.
Watch: NYPD provides an update on a deadly pedestrian accident in Brooklyn
Police say the driver struck a bicyclist and two pedestrians at the intersection of Macon Street and Ralph Avenue but continued driving.
At Halsey Street, the driver allegedly struck another pedestrian, then crashed into a vehicle. Two passengers then got out and ran.
One pedestrian, who police say was a 67-year-old grandmother, was pronounced dead at the scene. An 8-year-old boy was taken to a local hospital in critical condition.
Three other victims were taken to local hospitals to be treated for non-life-threatening injuries.
Witnesses told CBS2's Natalie Duddridge they saw the boy and the grandmother lying on the street, as well as a man who got thrown onto the trunk of a car.
"While we were walking that way, we saw the man on the car and then the lady in the street, and I ran inside and I grabbed like a shirt -- because that's what I do, I sell shirts -- and then I took it and I wrapped his arm," one witness said.
"Ran, like, two red lights, and he's in the opposite lane, so it was like a disaster you could've seen coming from like five miles away," another witness said.
"The crime problem is being fed by the wrong message that we're sending in the city. We've said it over and over again. We have an elderly grandmother that was struck and killed ... Video that I observed is chilling for anyone that lives in this community," Mayor Eric Adams said.
One person is in custody, but no charges have been filed at this time. Police say they are searching for at least one other person.
Anyone with any information is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477), or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). You can also submit a tip via their website or via DM on Twitter, @NYPDTips. All calls are kept confidential.
According to the city, since Friday, there have been six traffic crashes that have either hurt or killed someone on New York City streets, including a crash that critically injured an 11-year-old boy in Brooklyn on Friday night.
