Uber driver fatally struck while retrieving items from vehicle in Queens

SOUTH RICHMOND PARK, Queens (WABC) -- An Uber driver was killed in a hit and run as he was trying to collect items in the back seat of his car.

Sonia Ramirez was staring at a black SUV - the driver, Besik Shengelia was driving motionless right next to his car.

"It's a shame that people was (sic) driving by and nobody stopped. National Grid saw me stopping traffic, and they came and helped us," says Ramirez.

Hours after the deadly accident, detective s went door-to-door on 111th Street in south Ozone Park. They are trying to see if anyone saw something around 4:30 Sunday morning - that is when someone driving a car hit 48-year-old Shengelia and kept going.

Shengelia lived in Ocean Parkway, Brooklyn, but a woman who told Eyewitness News she was his wife did not want to comment. Shengelia was an Uber driver, and it was not clear why he was stopped.

"The street does have a problem late at night with people speeding up and down the street, basically, and something needs to change around here," eyewitness David Moore says.

Police say at the time of the accident, the victim seemed to be getting something from the back seat. He probably never saw the suspect's car coming right towards him.

"It's a shame. I hope whoever is responsible turns themselves in. If they have a conscious because it's somebody's son, father, cousin...it's devastating," adds Ramirez.