14-year-old killed by hit-and-run driver in Brooklyn, arrest made

KENSINGTON, N.Y. (WABC) -- An elderly woman is under arrest in connection with the death of a teenager killed in a hit and run Thursday evening in Brooklyn.

Lynn Reynolds, 78, of Brooklyn, is charged with leaving the scene of an accident causing serious injury, violation of high law, failure to exercise due care and right of way violation (person in crosswalk).

Fourteen-year-old Mohammad Uddin, on his way home from school, was crossing the street at Caton Avenue and East Seventh Street in Kensington when he was struck by a red sedan around 5:30 p.m.

The car fled the scene, police say.

The teen, a freshman at Brooklyn Tech, was taken to Maimonides Medical Center, where he later died from injuries to his head and body.

Uddin's distraught father was at a loss for words.

"We had almost 150, 200 people in the hospital," family friend Jahid Minto said. "Everybody was in tears...We don't want to see any fathers losing their son, any mothers losing their son. Fourteen years old. Bright future."

Reynolds, a retired psychotherapist, was arraigned in criminal court in Downtown Brooklyn Friday.

A witness reported that the driver struck Uddin, got out of the car, looked in the victim's direction, got back into the car and drove away.

But when police tracked Reynolds down to her apartment building, with the damaged car parked out front, she apparently told them that she didn't see any victim and thought children had thrown something at her car. She said she stepped out of the car, didn't see anything and kept going. She denied seeing a child in the street.

"She heard something hit the car," defense attorney Barry Deonarine said. "She stopped because she wasn't sure. She didn't see anything, and then she went on her way."

Deonarine says that this case, while tragic, is not a crime.

"Our heart goes out to the family of the young man," he said. "I know that they're in pain tonight. But this is an accident. She did not commit a crime."