Driver Sentenced to Five to 10 Years for Fatal Bed-Stuy Hit-and-Run.
The Return
Prosecutors said Jerry Gelle drove north at about 53 mph, ran a red light and struck Felix Mendez, 49, at Bedford and Lafayette avenues in Brooklyn before fleeing; the official crash record lists the fatal collision there at 3:07 a.m. on Oct. 10, 2024.
Location reported in Open Data.
What We Know
Prosecutors said Jerry Gelle drove a gray 2024 Jeep Grand Cherokee north on Bedford Avenue at about 53 mph, ran a steady red light and struck Felix Mendez in the crosswalk before fleeing. News accounts differed on the vehicle's color and Mendez's crossing signal. Gelle later pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter and leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death and was sentenced to five to 10 years.
Prosecutors described a high-speed approach and red-light violation.
The Brooklyn District Attorney's Office said Gelle drove a gray 2024 Jeep Grand Cherokee north on Bedford Avenue at about 53 mph, ran a steady red light at Lafayette Avenue and struck Mendez in the crosswalk. Prosecutors said surveillance video showed Gelle running multiple red lights, driving in bike lanes and triggering speed cameras in the minutes before the crash.
Vehicle descriptions differ: prosecutors identified a gray Jeep Grand Cherokee, while the Daily News and News 12 described a white SUV in surveillance footage. Reports also differed on the crossing signal: the Daily News said Mendez crossed Lafayette Avenue with the light, while El Diario described the signal as red. Prosecutors said Gelle ran a steady red light.
Mendez was working toward a future in Mexico.
The New York Post reported that Mendez came to the United States around 1999 and was working to fund a house in Puebla, Mexico. He hoped to return there and become a pig farmer. His friend and neighbor Alejandro Flores said they grew close while working together at a Broad Street restaurant in the late 2000s.
Mendez's nephew Francisco told the Post that he had informed Mendez's four siblings in Mexico and his son, Leonardo, in California. Flores said Mendez's father had also been killed in a hit-and-run in Mexico, about 40 years earlier.
A street redesign followed the crash.
The official crash record places the collision at Bedford Avenue and Lafayette Avenue in Brooklyn at 3:07 a.m. on Oct. 10, 2024. The District Attorney's Office identifies the area as Bedford-Stuyvesant.
Streetsblog reported that the Department of Transportation repainted this stretch of Bedford Avenue roughly 24 hours later, narrowing the roadway to one traffic lane and adding a protected bike lane. Transportation Alternatives leader Elizabeth Adams criticized the project's delay beyond its initially promised late-2023 timeline.
Gelle pleaded guilty and received a prison sentence.
Prosecutors said Gelle left without stopping, later tried to clean the Jeep's interior and abandoned it about four blocks away. Police recovered the Jeep, and evidence including DNA on the gear shift linked him to the crime, according to the District Attorney's Office. Gelle was arrested in July 2025.
Gelle, 32, pleaded guilty on March 11, 2026, to second-degree manslaughter and leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death. Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Warin sentenced him to five to 10 years in prison. The District Attorney's Office said the impact killed Mendez; the New York Post reported that Mendez was taken to Brooklyn Methodist Hospital in critical condition and later pronounced dead.