NYPD Tow-Truck Driver Charged After Boy Is Killed in Fort Greene
At 7:52 a.m. on Oct. 26, 2023, NYPD tow-truck driver Stephanie Sharp hit and killed 7-year-old Kamari Hughes while he was crossing Myrtle Avenue at North Portland Avenue with the signal, and police charged Sharp with failure to yield and failure to exercise due care.
What We Know
Kamari Hughes, 7, was crossing Myrtle Avenue at North Portland Avenue in Fort Greene on the morning of Oct. 26, 2023, when NYPD tow-truck driver Stephanie Sharp hit him while making a right turn, according to police accounts reported by the Post and the city crash record. The record says the child was a pedestrian at the intersection and was crossing with the signal; it lists failure to yield by the driver. Police charged Sharp, a civilian NYPD employee, with failure to yield to a pedestrian and failure to exercise due care, the Post reported. Witnesses and NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey gave conflicting accounts of whether Sharp stopped immediately after the crash.
A right turn through the crosswalk
The crash record places the collision at Myrtle Avenue and North Portland Avenue in Brooklyn at 7:52 a.m. and records one pedestrian death. It says Kamari Hughes, 7, was at the intersection and crossing with the signal.
The Post, citing police, reported that Stephanie Sharp, a civilian NYPD employee driving an NYPD tow truck, was making a right turn onto North Portland Avenue when she hit Kamari in the crosswalk. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Kamari was on his way to school
The Post reported that Kamari was riding a scooter and crossing Myrtle Avenue with his mother when Sharp hit him. The article described his mother sitting in the crosswalk afterward beside her only child.
Witness Marlo Stevens told the Post that Kamari’s mother yelled to the driver, “You hit my child,” and then, after realizing he was not moving, “You killed my child.” Another witness, Antwoan Hayes, said he was taking his own children to school at the time.
Police cited failure to yield
The city crash record lists failure to yield right-of-way as the contributing factor for the driver in the tow truck. Police charged Sharp with failure to yield to a pedestrian and failure to exercise due care, the Post reported, and issued her a desk-appearance ticket.
Accounts differed on what happened immediately after the impact. NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey said the driver stopped immediately, while witnesses Hayes and Stevens told the Post that she continued moving before bystanders intervened.
The intersection sits on a dangerous Myrtle Avenue corridor
The crash happened at Myrtle Avenue and North Portland Avenue, just outside Fort Greene Park, according to the Post and the city crash record.
CrashCountNYC’s location context for Myrtle Avenue in Brooklyn shows 1,603 crashes, 853 injuries, 44 serious injuries and 5 deaths on the corridor since 2022. Gothamist reported that the city changed the crosswalk light at Myrtle and North Portland after Kamari’s death so pedestrians could begin crossing a few seconds before drivers received a green light.