Driver charged after fatal Far Rockaway sidewalk crash.
Outside the Deli
Kiani Phoenix allegedly drove onto a sidewalk during a dispute, fatally injuring Milton Storch in a crash recorded at 7:19 a.m. on August 27, 2022, at 601 Beach 20 Street in Queens.
Location reported in Open Data.
What We Know
Prosecutors said Kiani Phoenix drove onto a Far Rockaway sidewalk while allegedly trying to hit another woman, fatally injuring Milton Storch and injuring a second pedestrian. Reports described the car's movements in different levels of detail: QNS said Phoenix reversed, turned sharply, drove forward, then backed into the second pedestrian; an earlier police account in the New York Post said she drove onto the sidewalk and then hit the second man while backing up. The crash record places the collision at 7:19 a.m. on August 27, 2022, at 601 Beach 20 Street in Queens. Phoenix was charged with murder and later indicted on murder and other charges.
Prosecutors said Phoenix was trying to reach another woman.
QNS, reporting prosecutors' account of surveillance video, said Phoenix and a 27-year-old woman argued and fought beside a parked Honda Accord. After bystanders separated them, Phoenix got into the driver's seat, reversed, turned sharply right and accelerated onto the sidewalk toward the woman, prosecutors alleged.
QNS said Phoenix drove forward and struck Storch, then reversed and hit a second pedestrian before driving west on New Haven Avenue. An August 27 police account in the New York Post said Phoenix drove onto the sidewalk and struck Storch, then hit another pedestrian while backing up. An August 28 Post report described Phoenix backing up and stopping before driving forward toward the store. The accounts describe the movements with different levels of detail.
The collision happened on a Far Rockaway sidewalk.
The crash record places the collision at 601 Beach 20 Street in Queens at 7:19 a.m. on August 27, 2022. QNS located the sidewalk outside a convenience store on Beach 20th Street near New Haven Avenue; the New York Post identified the storefront as Rohan Deli in Far Rockaway. Reports place Storch on the sidewalk outside the store, where he was resting on his walker.
Neighbors remembered Storch as a familiar presence.
Milton Storch, 59, lived on Collier Avenue, a few blocks from the deli, QNS reported. QNS said EMS took him to St. John's Episcopal Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Prosecutors said the second pedestrian was treated at the same hospital for back and hip injuries.
A neighbor who declined to give her name described Storch as “a very quiet man. He’s polite. Never raised his voice. He tried to get along with everyone,” the New York Post reported. Other locals said he was a fixture on the block.
Reports identified the car in different ways.
The crash record classifies the vehicle as a sedan. QNS and the August 31 New York Post described it as a Honda Accord, while the Post's August 27 report called it a black Honda.
Phoenix surrendered and was indicted.
The New York Post reported that Phoenix surrendered on August 29 and was charged with murder, attempted murder, assault and reckless endangerment. QNS reported that a Queens grand jury indicted her on murder and other charges on September 1; she was awaiting arraignment when that article was published.