One day after a seven-year-old boy was hit and killed by an NYPD tow truck in Brooklyn, police said the driver of the vehicle has been charged.
Stephanie Sharp, 54, faces two charges: failure to yield to a pedestrian or bicycle, and failure to exercise due care, police said.
The child, who police identified as Kamei Hughes, of Brooklyn, was on his way to school and crossing the street with his mother when the incident occurred shortly before 8 a.m. Thursday morning, according to the NYPD.
The tow truck was traveling west on Myrtle Avenue in Fort Greene when Sharp tried to make a right turn onto North Portland Avenue, at the north end of Fort Greene Park, NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey said at a news briefing.
As Sharp turned and started to pass through the crosswalk at the intersection, the tow truck struck Hughes, who had been riding a scooter.
Emergency personnel who arrived soon after pronounced Hughes dead at the scene. The child’s mother was not injured.
In a statement provided to NY1, Department of Education press secretary Nathaniel Styer said the boy was not a New York City Public Schools student, but noted that the DOE “offered and are providing services to their school and the surrounding schools as the community grieves.”
“This is an unspeakable tragedy, and our hearts go out to this child and their family,” Styer said.
In his own statement, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso said there were "no words to adequately describe the horror of this tragedy."
“I mourn alongside the victim's family, loved ones, and community, and I am angered that yet another innocent life has been lost way too soon to senseless traffic violence on our streets," Reynoso said. "A child has been robbed of the future that he deserved, and nothing can bring him back. However, we can and will pursue justice on his behalf."
Attorney information for Sharp wasn't immediately available Friday.