Staten Island woman struck by hit-and-run driver while taking child out of backseat

ST. GEORGE, Staten Island (WABC) -- Police are searching for the driver who struck a woman on Staten Island who was tending to her baby nephew and fled the scene early Monday.

37-year-old Monique Knight was taking her four-month-old nephew out of a parked car when she was hit in the St. George section.

She was lifting the boy out of the backseat of a parked Ford Explorer when she saw a Jeep coming at her at 12:15 a.m.

She dropped the infant back in the parked car and attempted to flee.

The Jeep, headed north on Westervelt Avenue, first struck the parked SUV, and then struck her.

"I told her just to concentrate on me, I didn't want her to look down. I thought she would go into shock," said Reginald Van Dyke, eyewitness.

The vehicle, described as a grey Jeep Grand Cherokee, fled the scene.

Police are searching for it, and may have recovered a license plate from the vehicle.

The victim sustained a serious injury to her leg and was rushed to Richmond University Medical Center, where she was listed in stable condition.

Doctors are trying to save her leg.

The four-month-old escaped injury.

"The baby was under the driver's seat. So he must have fell out of the baby seat and onto the floor and under the seat, that's where we found the infant," Van Dyke said.

Van Dyke did find a license plate at the scene and he turned that into police, hoping that would aid them in their search for the suspect.