Hit-and-run driver kills pedestrian at Bedford and Lafayette
A driver in a 2024 Jeep SUV fatally hit 49-year-old pedestrian Felix Mendez at Bedford Avenue and Lafayette Avenue around 3:07 a.m., with the official record citing unsafe speed and traffic-control disregard and reports saying the driver fled.
What We Know
According to the police report, a northbound driver on Bedford Avenue hit a 49-year-old man who was crossing at Lafayette Avenue in Brooklyn around 3:07 a.m. The man suffered a fatal head injury and died at the scene. Police listed his role as a pedestrian at the intersection and recorded the vehicle’s impact at the center front end during overnight conditions.
Mendez was crossing Lafayette Avenue when the driver hit him
The crash happened around 3:07 a.m. on Oct. 10, 2024, at Bedford Avenue and Lafayette Avenue in Brooklyn. The official record lists Felix Mendez, 49, as a pedestrian killed at the intersection.
Medics took Mendez to NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, where he died, according to the Daily News and the Post.
Bedford Avenue has seen repeated crash harm
The crash happened at Bedford Avenue and Lafayette Avenue in Brooklyn.
CrashCountNYC’s street context for Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn counted 2,327 crashes, 1,544 injuries, 78 serious injuries and 8 deaths from Jan. 1, 2022, through June 1, 2026.
Felix Mendez lived nearby and supported family goals
The Daily News reported that Mendez was crossing just down the block from his Bedford-Stuyvesant home. The Post identified him as Felix Mendez of Lafayette Avenue and reported that he came to the United States around 1999.
Alejandro Flores, described by the Post as Mendez’s friend and neighbor, said Mendez had worked with him at a Broad Street restaurant in the late 2000s. The Post reported that Mendez was working to fund construction of a house in Puebla, Mexico, and hoped to return there.
Records and reports point to a northbound SUV driver
The official vehicle record lists a 2024 Jeep SUV traveling north and going straight ahead, with one occupant and center-front damage.
The Daily News described the driver as operating a white SUV and reported on Oct. 10 that police were looking for surveillance footage to identify the driver or vehicle.
Speed and traffic-control disregard were cited
The official vehicle record cites unsafe speed and traffic-control disregard as contributing factors for the SUV driver. The Daily News also reported that surveillance footage showed the driver speeding north on Bedford Avenue before hitting Mendez.
Family and friends connected the loss to an earlier tragedy
The Post reported that Mendez’s nephew, Francisco Mendez, said he told Mendez’s siblings in Mexico and his son in California about his death. Flores told the Post that Mendez’s father had also been killed in a hit-and-run in Mexico decades earlier.