It happened around 9:45p.m. on Bronx River Avenue in the Soundview section, as 31-year-old Carina Lopez was on her way to visit her parents when her life was cut short.
The driver, 42-year-old Robert Johnson, of Mount Vernon, is now under arrest.
"She was a loving caring person who didn't deserve to go this way," younger sister Kathy Lopez said.
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Car parts and debris still littered the roadway Wednesday, and police said Carina Lopez was on the phone with a friend who heard screaming and bystanders urging her to hang on.
"I saw a lady on the floor, and I ran down to see, was she OK?" witness Rene Torres said. "I was trying to talk to her, and I really couldn't hear her."
Surveillance video shows the blur of the Dodge Ram flying past a bodega, sideswiping one of the vehicles that was struck
"He kept going after he hit her," witness Yemanni Vasquez said. "He kept going across the medium, I don't know how, and then crashed on the other side."
Johnson is charged with reckless driving and reckless endangerment, but upgraded charges are possible as the investigation continues.
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Carina Lopez's family, though, is in mourning over their loved one, who worked as a physical therapy aide.
"She loved us so much," Kathy Lopez said. "We were like her daughters. She was our second mom. My sister and I loved her."
Johnson is reportedly out on parole, and there is an out-of-state warrant for his arrest, though the nature of that warrant has not been released at this time.
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