A New York Police Department tow truck driver has been charged in connection with the death of a 7-year-old boy who was struck by the driver’s vehicle as he headed to school, authorities said Friday.
Police arrested Stephanie Sharp, 54, and charged her with failure to yield to a pedestrian and failure to exercise due care.
Sharp, a traffic enforcement agent with the NYPD, was driving her tow truck in Brooklyn just outside of Fort Greene Park on Thursday morning when she allegedly hit the boy, later identified by his school as Kamari Hughes.
Hughes was riding a kick scooter next to his mother in the crosswalk when the incident occurred.
“My son was amazing,” Hughes’ mom told the New York Daily News. “It’s a lot. Just a lot.”
A witness at the scene told The New York Times that the driver appeared to be trying to beat a yellow light. Witnesses who spoke to the Daily News gave similar accounts, with at least one claiming that the driver had also been talking on a cellphone without a headset.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams expressed his condolences in a statement.
“When we lose one of our babies, the entire city feels it,” he said. “We feel it today after losing a seven year old angel in Brooklyn.”
Adams said an investigation is underway, adding that “we will do whatever it takes to keep our streets safe.”
As The New York Times points out, cyclist and pedestrian deaths in New York City have increased since last year, when Adams became mayor.
