NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – An NYPD tow truck operator was charged with failure to yield to a pedestrian and released on a desk appearance ticket after allegedly killing a 7-year-old boy walking to school with his mother in Brooklyn on Thursday morning.
The civilian NYPD member, who is a 54-year-old woman, was also charged with failure to exercise due care following the deadly accident in Fort Greene, police said Friday.
The boy was walking from the Walt Whitman Houses to school at 7:50 a.m. Thursday when he was struck by the tow truck at Myrtle and North Portland avenues, just north of Fort Greene Park, according to police.
The driver was traveling westbound on Myrtle Avenue and attempting to make a right turn onto North Portland Avenue just as the boy entered the crosswalk on a green scooter.
“As the department tow truck made the right turn and started to pass the crosswalk, the young child who was walking with his mother was struck,” NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey said Thursday. “The child went down. The tow truck operator stopped immediately. EMS arrived at the scene and immediately pronounced the young child DOA at the scene.”
The driver, who was headed to the Brooklyn tow pound a few blocks from the scene, reportedly kept going until bystanders got her attention.
Police said they were unable to confirm witness reports that the driver was talking on a cellphone at the time of the crash, as the investigation continues.
Witnesses said the anguished mother was hysterically screaming, "They killed my baby!"
A white sheet covered the boy's body beside his green scooter and his backpack.
The mother and a second child in a stroller were not injured.