Police looking for driver after man struck, killed by tow truck in the Bronx
WAKEFIELD, Bronx (WABC) -- Police are investigating after a man was struck and killed by a tow truck that reportedly fled the scene on Monday, police said.
Officers responded to Bronxwood Avenue and E. 229th Street just after 12:30 p.m. for reports of a vehicle collision.
Police said a 64-year-old man was walking in the crosswalk eastbound on E. 229th Street when he was hit by a black Chevy Silverado truck with a tow hitch that was traveling north on Bronxwood Avenue.
Surveillance video obtained by Eyewitness News shows the pickup truck turning onto Bronxwood Avenue from E. 229th Street.
The driver hits and runs over the victim, appears to slow down and then speeds off, blowing the next red light at E. 230th Street, through another crosswalk with a walk signal.
"The impact was so loud that I thought it was two vehicles hitting each other," said an eyewitness. "And once I looked up and I noticed the guy on the floor. I was just devastated, to be honest."
The witness says he hopped into his car and followed the truck on Bronxwood Avenue. The witness got a plate number for police but lost sight of the fleeing driver.
Back at the scene, neighbors were doing all they could to help the victim on the ground.
"He didn't look like he was moving. And I saw a lot of people just gathering," said neighbor Kwame Nkrumah. "One individual was, you know, trying to give him a CPR. But it looked like he was unresponsive."
S.M. Akhtaruzzeman was pronounced dead at Jacobi Hospital less than an hour later.
He lived only a block away with his wife and one of his daughters.
"He was such a nice human being. He was very kind. He was always very respectful. He loved all of us so much," said the victim's daughter Israd Maria. "He's so kind to the point that he'd even feed stray cats. I cannot tell you enough."
His devastated family says he was just on a walk when the pickup driver callously hit him.
"I want justice. I want that guy to get punishment so that others learn not to drive over a senior man," Maria said. "They didn't even treat him as a human being. They just went over him. He was rolling over."
Neighbors are also asking who could do this in the middle of the afternoon, and right in front of a school.
"The idea is that you're going pretty slow, especially if you're a tow truck driver," neighbor Gilbert Nyantayki said. "We never heard anything like this. And to hear that he actually lived in the neighborhood is even more sad."
"Very nice people. Very nice. So this is like a real tragedy," neighbor Octavia Brown said.
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