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Woman Arrested After Running Over Elderly Man, Getting Out To See Him Bleeding, Then Driving Away
By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Jun 25, 2015
Modified Mar 26, 2018
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By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Jun 25, 2015
Modified Mar 26, 2018
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A 40-year-old woman who allegedly struck and killed a 93-year-old man with her car and then fled the scene was arrested yesterday, according to police. She has been charged with leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death.
The NYPD says that Brooklyn resident Janice Vargas-Cruz was behind the wheel of a black four-door sedan at around 11:12 a.m. on Tuesday when she struck the unidentified victim on Albany Avenue, near Eastern Parkway. The victim, identified by media outlets as Melwood Hughes, had just been run over by the driver of a white tractor trailer, who also drove off immediately after the incident. Hughes was lying in the street when Cruz allegedly struck him.
According to police, Cruz stopped her vehicle, got out of the car and approached the victim, but then got back inside and drove off. "The tractor really didn't do that much damage. The woman in the car did the most damage. She dragged him maybe 10 feet. She backs out, gets out the car, looks down at the man bleeding and in pain, and she gets in her car and drives away," a witness told ABC 7.
Graphic surveillance video shows both cars striking the victim:
Hughes was reportedly double-parked and getting out of his vehicle when he was struck by both drivers. He was pronounced dead at Lutheran Hospital, and family members say they're struggling to understand how something like this could have happened. "I'm so sick, I'm sick, I'm in the house and I miss him so much every time I look. I don't know what to do," Maxine Gray, the victim's girlfriend, told ABC 7.
The NYPD is currently searching for the truck driver.
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