Search for hit-and-run driver who fatally struck man on Christmas in Queens

ByDiana Rocco, Eyewitness News WABC logo
Friday, December 27, 2019
Search for hit-and-run driver who fatally struck man on Christmas in Queens
Naveen Dhaliwal has the story from South Ozone Park.

SOUTH OZONE PARK, Queens (WABC) -- Police in Queens continue to search for the driver of a vehicle who hit and killed a father of 4.

Ainsley Dalrymple, 67, was crossing Rockaway Boulevard at 114th Street after a Christmas gathering at his eldest son's house, when he was hit by a driver who never stopped.

He left his wife waiting in the car around 9:30 p.m.

In the surveillance video, Dalrymple is seen parking and seconds later he exits to cross the street when a vehicle traveling at a high speed slammed into him.

His family says his wife heard the bang, initially thinking it was a car accident involving two cars.

"She said she just heard a bang, she thought it was two cars, but it wasn't," said Ainsley Dalrymple, Jr., the victim's son.

The 67-year-old died at the hospital.

Outside his Hempstead Long Island home, his family is still in shock.

The loved father of four and grandfather of seven was a Jamaican immigrant and hard worker and that's how he will be remembered.

"Very hard working, very hard working man," Dalrymple, Jr. said. "I learned a lot, I learned a lot from him. That's the one thing and that was just to be hard working because that's what he was, everyday. It doesn't matter the weather, he went to work. He was just a very dedicated family man."

Dalrymple is the eighth pedestrian struck and killed in a little more than a week.

This all comes as the city has announced that despite efforts of Vision Zero, fatalities are up.

More than 117 pedestrians have been killed this year.

Police are continuing to search for the gray or silver Toyota pickup truck which was last seen speeding west on Rockaway Boulevard.

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