Police: Hit-And-Run Driver Charged After Man Found Dead In Queens Street
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – Police have made an arrest after a 65-year-old man was found dead this morning in a Queens street.
The victim was discovered around 3:40 a.m. near the intersection of Rockaway Boulevard and Brookville Boulevard in Rosedale. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
About nine hours later, police arrested 35-year-old Kevin Dennard, of Nassau County, and charged him with leaving the scene of an accident. He has two prior DWI arrests and another for driving without a license. Police haven't said if Dennard was intoxicated at the time of the accident.
Brett Buchman told CBS2's Marc Liverman he was roommates with the victim at a Holiday Inn for close to a year. He says he was devastated when he found out what happened.
"It's pretty shocking, you know. Like I was telling them, he left to work an hour earlier than usual today, so if he had left at a regular time, who knows? Maybe it wouldn't have even happened," Buchman said. "He went to work every day. He was a hardworking guy. He was in construction. He used to travel to Brooklyn, that's a three-hour trip each way."
Jean Rosario said he was friends with the victim.
"Waking up at that time in the morning and encountering that such a good person died and a real irresponsible person hit him and left running, you know, I think that's a real shameful thing to do," he said.
Rosario said he woke up to the sound of the car speeding down the street near the Holiday Inn.
"The police was already there covering him up with the sheet," he told Liverman.
He said he was able to get close enough to identify the victim as his friend.
"We just called him pops," he said. "He was a great old guy. It's out of love – out of love for pops."
Police have not released a description of the vehicle involved.
"You should be ashamed of yourself. Not just that. It's a human being… It's somebody that was alive, somebody that was trying to do his best to live out here," said Rosario.
Rosario said his friend barely spoke English but was the kind of guy everybody at the hotel loved.
"He was a great old man, great old man, really well carried, really respectful, great manners," he said. "He didn't talk to a lot of people, but he was a great guy."
Anyone with information about his death is asked to call NYPD's Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or 1-888-57-PISTA (74782) for Spanish. You can also submit a tip via the Crime Stoppers website, by Tweeting @NYPDTips or by texting a tip to 274637.
