NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) — A fourth person has died after a 44-year-old New Jersey man, accused of being drunk and unlicensed, drove through a crowd in a Lower East Side park on the Fourth of July, police said Thursday.
Emily Ruiz, 30, was transported in critical condition to NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue after the crash at Corlears Hook Park at 8:45 p.m. on July 4. She succumbed to her injuries on Tuesday, police said.
Ruiz lived across the street from the park where she was killed. Two of the other victims, 59-year-old Lucille Pinkney and her 38-year-old son Hernan Pinkney, also lived less than a block away from Corlears Hook Park.
Another woman, 43-year-old Ana Morel, also perished in the collision.
Seven others were hospitalized—including an 11-year-old boy, 18-year-old girl and five people in their 30s—when Daniel Hyden on Monmouth Junction, N.J. allegedly sped through the intersection of Water Street and Cherry in a gray Ford F-150, jumped the sidewalk and crashed into the park where people were celebrating.
Hyden was charged with drunk driving and driving without a valid license upon arrest, and was soon hit with additional charges, including aggravated vehicular homicide, assault and manslaughter.
He was arraigned in Manhattan criminal court on July 6 and held without bail.