Driver sentenced for manslaughter in Crown Heights crash death
At 6:34 p.m. on March 13, 2023, the official record logged one driver killed and one injured at Nostrand Avenue and Crown Street, and prosecutors later said Elijah Lucaine ran a red light at high speed before hitting David Ellis’s Acura.
What We Know
David Ellis, 56, was driving an Acura at Nostrand Avenue and Crown Street when Elijah Lucaine, driving an Infiniti Q50, hit him in Crown Heights. The official crash record lists the time as 6:34 p.m. on March 13, 2023, and records one motorist killed and one injured. Prosecutors later said Lucaine had run multiple red lights, sped, and swerved in traffic before running a red light at the intersection. Brooklyn Paper accounts disagree on the exact timeline of Ellis’s death: a June 2023 story said he died two days later after a medical episode, while a July 2024 sentencing story cited prosecutors saying he died five days later from blunt force trauma. Lucaine pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter and was sentenced to three to nine years in prison.
A traffic stop and a fatal collision in Crown Heights
The official crash record places the collision at 6:34 p.m. on March 13, 2023, at Nostrand Avenue and Crown Street in Brooklyn, with one motorist killed and one motorist injured.
Brooklyn Paper reported that police said Elijah Lucaine was driving an Infiniti Q50 when officers tried to pull him over near Eastern Parkway and Bergen Street. Prosecutors later said Lucaine ran red lights, sped, and swerved in and out of oncoming traffic before he ran a red light at Crown Street and Nostrand Avenue and hit the Acura driven by David Ellis.
Reports disagree on the timing
The official record and a June 2023 Brooklyn Paper story place the crash around 6:34 p.m. A July 2024 sentencing story, citing the district attorney’s office, gives earlier times, saying police observed Lucaine around 4:35 p.m. and that the collision happened around 4:45 p.m.
David Ellis died after the crash
David Brian Ellis, 56, was the driver of the Acura and was taken to Kings County Hospital after the collision. Brooklyn Paper reported that first responders had to cut off the door to free him and that he suffered a leg fracture, rib fractures, and a lung contusion.
The published accounts differ on when and how Ellis died. The June 2023 account said he died two days later after a medical episode while hospitalized; the July 2024 sentencing account cited prosecutors saying he died five days later from blunt force trauma sustained in the crash.
The crash involved moving and parked vehicles
The official record lists an SUV and a sedan as the moving vehicles, along with parked vehicles at the scene. Brooklyn Paper identified Lucaine’s vehicle as a 2015 white Infiniti Q50 and Ellis’s vehicle as an Acura.
Authorities told Brooklyn Paper that, after Lucaine hit Ellis’s Acura, the involved vehicles were redirected into a parked 2008 BMW X5, which was then pushed into a parked 2011 Mercedes-Benz van.
Prosecutors tied the crash to red-light running and speed
The official crash record lists traffic control disregarded as a contributing factor. The vehicle record for the Infiniti also lists unsafe speed.
Brooklyn prosecutors said Lucaine ran a red light at 70 mph in a 25 mph zone before hitting Ellis’s Acura. Lucaine later pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter, and in July 2024 a Brooklyn Supreme Court judge sentenced him to three to nine years in prison.
Police pursuit account
Brooklyn Paper reported that surveillance footage showed an NYPD cruiser entering the frame moments after the collision, while an NYPD spokesperson said officers were not pursuing Lucaine at the time of the crash.
Nostrand Avenue has seen repeated serious crashes
The crash happened at Nostrand Avenue and Crown Street in Brooklyn. CrashCountNYC’s location context for Nostrand Avenue in Brooklyn records 2,399 crashes, 1,522 injuries, 74 serious injuries, and 3 deaths on the corridor since 2022.