Driver Charged After Far Rockaway Sidewalk Fatality
Police recorded one pedestrian killed and one injured at 7:19 a.m. on Aug. 27 outside 601 Beach 20th Street, and later said Kiani Phoenix had driven a Honda sedan onto the sidewalk during a dispute, killing Milton Storch.
What We Know
Milton Storch, 59, died after a driver in a Honda sedan went onto the sidewalk outside 601 Beach 20th Street in Far Rockaway on Aug. 27, 2022. The city crash record lists one pedestrian killed and one pedestrian injured, with aggressive driving or road rage recorded as a contributing factor. Police told the Post that Kiani Phoenix had been arguing with another woman, drove toward her, hit Storch as he sat on a walker outside a deli, then backed up and injured another man before leaving. Phoenix later turned herself in and was charged with murder, attempted murder, assault and other offenses. Her attorney said she had been attacked before the crash and connected the confrontation to alleged domestic abuse involving her estranged boyfriend.
A sidewalk encounter turned deadly
The crash happened at 7:19 a.m. on Aug. 27, 2022, outside 601 Beach 20th Street in Far Rockaway. The city record lists a sedan traveling south and going straight before the crash, with one pedestrian killed and one pedestrian injured.
Police told the Post that two women had been arguing before one of them got into a Honda and drove onto the sidewalk while trying to hit the other woman. Police said the driver hit Milton Storch, who was seated on a walker, then backed up and injured another man before leaving the scene.
Milton Storch was a familiar presence on the block
The official record identifies the person killed as a 59-year-old male pedestrian who was away from an intersection and out of the roadway. The Post later identified him as Milton Storch.
Neighbors and a roommate described Storch as quiet, polite and often seen on the block. Jorge Alberto Senquis told the Post that Storch sat there in the mornings to drink coffee and smoke, calling it the wrong place, wrong time.
Beach 20th Street has seen repeated crashes since 2022
The fatal crash was recorded outside 601 Beach 20th Street in Far Rockaway, near the Rohan deli that witnesses and police described in press accounts.
CrashCountNYC location context for Beach 20th Street in Queens shows 151 crashes, 68 injuries, two serious injuries and one death from the start of 2022 through June 1, 2026.
Aggressive driving was recorded as a factor
The city crash record lists aggressive driving or road rage as the contributing factor for the sedan. Press accounts cited police saying the driver was trying to hit another woman after an argument when she instead hit Storch and injured another pedestrian.
A later Post account said the criminal complaint accused Phoenix of trying to run down the other woman on the sidewalk. Phoenix's attorney claimed she had been attacked before the crash and argued that earlier police action in a domestic-abuse matter could have prevented the confrontation.
The driver surrendered and faced felony charges
Police said Phoenix turned herself in two days after the crash. The Post reported that she was charged with murder, attempted murder, assault and reckless endangerment; a later account also listed leaving the scene of an incident without reporting.
EMS took Storch to St. John's Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Police said another man was treated at the same hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.