Driver imprisoned after fatal Crown Heights red-light crash
Prosecutors said Elijah Lucaine ran a red light at 70 mph and hit David Ellis's Acura at Nostrand Avenue and Crown Street, where the city crash record listed one motorist killed and one injured on March 13, 2023.
What We Know
At Crown Street and Nostrand Avenue, prosecutors said Elijah Lucaine ran a red light at 70 mph in a 25 mph zone and hit a black Acura driven by 56-year-old David Ellis. The city record for the March 13, 2023, crash lists one motorist killed and one injured and cites traffic control disregarded. Brooklyn Paper reported that police had tried to stop Lucaine earlier and that surveillance footage showed an NYPD cruiser entering the frame moments after the impact; police said officers were not pursuing him then. Ellis was hospitalized and later died from blunt-force trauma. Lucaine pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter and was sentenced to three to nine years in prison.
Prosecutors described a high-speed red-light impact
The city crash record lists the crash at Nostrand Avenue and Crown Street in Brooklyn on March 13, 2023, with one motorist killed and one motorist injured. It lists an SUV and a sedan among the involved vehicles and cites traffic control disregarded.
Public accounts disagree on the time
The city crash record and Brooklyn Paper's 2023 police account place the crash or attempted stop at 6:34 p.m. A 2024 sentencing story, citing the district attorney's office, reported that police observed Lucaine around 4:35 p.m. and that the crash happened around 4:45 p.m.
David Ellis died after days in the hospital
Brooklyn Paper reported that paramedics also took Lucaine to Kings County Hospital after the crash.
The impact involved moving and parked vehicles
Authorities described the moving vehicles as Lucaine's Infiniti Q50 and Ellis's Acura RDX. Brooklyn Paper reported that the impact redirected both moving vehicles into a parked, unattended 2008 BMW X5, which was then pushed into a parked, unattended 2011 Mercedes Benz van.
The city record identifies the moving vehicles as a 2015 Infiniti sedan traveling west and a 2020 Acura SUV traveling south. It also lists a parked 2008 BMW SUV and a parked 2011 Mercedes van.
The case centered on speeding and red lights
The district attorney's office said Lucaine ran multiple red lights before reaching Crown Street and Nostrand Avenue, where he ran a red light at 70 mph in a 25 mph zone. The city crash record cites traffic control disregarded, and the sedan entry also lists unsafe speed.
Brooklyn Paper reported that surveillance footage showed an NYPD cruiser entering the frame moments after the impact, while an NYPD spokesperson said officers were not pursuing Lucaine at the time of the crash.
Lucaine pleaded guilty and was sentenced
Lucaine was arraigned in Brooklyn Supreme Court in June 2023 on charges that included second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide. Brooklyn Paper reported that he pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter on May 15, 2024, and was sentenced on July 2, 2024, to three to nine years in prison.
Nostrand Avenue has a long crash record
The crash was recorded at Nostrand Avenue and Crown Street in Brooklyn. CrashCountNYC location context identifies Nostrand Avenue in Brooklyn as a corridor with 2,399 crashes, 1,522 injuries, 74 serious injuries, and 3 deaths since 2022.