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Family & Coworkers Mourn Special Ed Teacher Fatally Run Over In Brooklyn
By
Scott Heins
Published Jan 4, 2017
Modified Jan 4, 2017
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By
Scott Heins
Published Jan 4, 2017
Modified Jan 4, 2017
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Family, friends and coworkers are mourning a 29-year-old teacher who was killed by drivers while walking in Brooklyn yesterday. Hermanda Booker was fatally struck by the driver of a white SUV at Nostrand Avenue and Kings Highway in Midwood at 6:45 a.m. Tuesday; an NYPD spokesperson said this morning that Booker "was some distance away from the crosswalk" when she was hit. After the first collision, Booker was hit by the driver of a school bus as she was lying in the road.
Although the NYPD initially said that the SUV driver fled the scene, it was later confirmed that both drivers remained at the scene. (Police also noted that no school children were riding the bus at the time of the crash.) Booker was rushed to Mount Sinai Brooklyn Hospital with severe trauma to her torso, and died of her injuries hours later.
"I was shocked," Booker's coworker Sam Maslow told ABC. "I had to leave my classroom and take some time. I want the world to know she loved her students." CBS reports that Booker had been on her way to the school where she worked at the time of the fatal collisions.
Booker's father, Herman, said police told him that his daughter had been crossing the street properly, with the light, when she was struck by the SUV driver.
"That is not proper," he told the Post. According to the tabloid, Booker had started working at a Ridgewood, Queens school in September while also studying to earn a master's degree in Women's Studies.
"That was her goal, to be a teacher," Maslow told ABC. "But she wanted to make sure she empowered kids in other ways."
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Hermanda Booker
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Scott Heins
Scott Heins is a freelance photo and video journalist based in New York City, and a frequent contributor to Gothamist + WNYC. His work often centers around labor rights, housing, and policing. In 2018-2019 he traveled to four states while covering a wave of public school teachers strikes, with work featured in The New York Times, The Intercept, Getty Images, Splinter, and Bloomberg Photos. Scott is a dues-paying member of the National Writers Union's Freelance Solidarity Project.
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