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Motorcyclist Killed By Driver Remembered As "Giving Person"
By
Jen Chung
Published Sep 21, 2010
Modified Sep 21, 2010
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By
Jen Chung
Published Sep 21, 2010
Modified Sep 21, 2010
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The 27-year-old motorcyclist who was killed by a motorist on Sunday afternoon was an East Village resident who worked at a hedge fund. Ronan Katz had been riding his Ducati motorcycle north on West Street when Naisha Sutton was making an apparent illegal left turn from Canal Street and struck him. Katz's mother said, "It was a nice day. He went for a nice ride."
Katz was pronounced dead at Beth Israel hospital. Sutton fled the scene but later turned herself in at the 75th police precinct in Brooklyn. She was charged with driving without a license and leaving the scene of an accident, but, at her arraignment, Sutton's lawyer claimed that Katz drove into her. According to the NY Times: Howard Simmons, a court-appointed lawyer for Ms. Sutton, told Judge Nervo that she had been trying to return home to Brooklyn when “she saw a motorcycle speeding toward her.” Moments later, he said, the motorcycle hit her front passenger door.
Mr. Simmons said his client got out of her car, spoke to onlookers who said they would call an ambulance and then left in a panicked state. Her car broke down on the Brooklyn Bridge, and she was towed across the East River. When she got home, he said, she went to the nearby 75th Precinct stationhouse with her father and turned herself in. She had never before been in trouble with the law, Mr. Simmons said.Simmons also said that Sutton left the scene because her 22-month-old child was in the car, "Essentially this was the situation where she had her baby who was hysterical in the backseat of her car. She was concerned with the welfare of her child and in a panicked state. She's a young woman." However, prosecutors say that Sutton left when she heard sirens and that over a dozen people called 911 about the accident.
The Times also contrasted the victim's and driver's lives, "He was a tall, dashing hedge fund executive with a taste for mountain bikes and flashy motorcycles. She was a single mother who had worked as a drugstore cashier and a federal government worker, collecting information for the Census Bureau."
Katz had graduated from the University of Pennsylvania (with three degrees); his sister, Israeli figure-skating champion, Tamar Katz told the Post, "I don't think there's a brother like him anywhere. He just helped me move into my dorm two weeks ago. He was so proud I got into Penn."
Tagged
canal street
hit and run
motorcycle
naisha sutton
Ronen Katz
West Street
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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