Mom killed, daughter critically injured in Brooklyn hit-and-run just days before Mother's Day
BUSHWICK, Brooklyn (WABC) -- Police are looking for the driver who was responsible for a deadly hit-and-run in Brooklyn just days before Mother's Day.
Officials say the incident occurred at the intersection of Eldert Street and Knickerbocker Avenue just after 5 p.m. Thursday.
Neighbors and witnesses told Eyewitness News that two women were mowed down, a 71-year-old and a 44-year-old. The victims were a mother and daughter who were crossing the street together at the intersection.
Surveillance video shows a blue Mazda with Massachusetts license plates speeding through the intersection with a police car behind it. The NYPD says the officers in the car were looking to stop the driver for a traffic infraction.
The driver lost control of the Mazda while refusing to pull over and hit the victims.
The 71-year-old woman was taken to Wycoff Hospital where she later died. She was identified Friday as Juanita Vidal.
Her 44-year-old daughter is at Elmhurst Hospital in critical condition.
"The older woman got CPR as soon as they could," eyewitness Rodrigo Gonzalez said. "They calmed the middle-aged woman down. But she... they were both very hurt."
Gonzalez says he had just walked into a nearby apartment after parking his van when he heard the crash.
The sound was the blue Mazda crashing into Gonzalez's parked van, but the damage was nothing compared to the horrific injuries the two women suffered.
Those who knew the mother and daughter say they were kind and spent a lot of time together, and they're heartbroken something like this happened in their neighborhood.
"We get hurt for being in the place at the wrong time, and we don't know these things are going to happen and just happen at an instant, and I just send my prayers to my friend Jessica, her family," friend Tanya Rosa said. "And to her daughters, I know they have got to be going crazy. They lost their grandmother the same damn time."
Police dogs searched the area and the Halsey Street L train station the suspect allegedly fled to but officials say the man was nowhere to be found.
The active manhunt for the suspect is ongoing. He was described as a young man with a ponytail, wearing a blue shirt and jeans.
The Mazda was a rental car and police are tracking down who rented the vehicle.
No arrests have been made.
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