Hit-and-run driver kills Felix Mendez in Bed-Stuy crosswalk
A driver heading north on Bedford hit a 49-year-old man in the intersection at Lafayette before dawn. The impact to his head killed him there in the street, under the dark Brooklyn sky.
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.
A before-dawn hit-and-run at the intersection
The crash happened at 3:07 a.m. on Oct. 10, 2024, at Bedford Avenue and Lafayette Avenue in Brooklyn. The official record says one pedestrian was killed and the SUV's driver was going north and going straight ahead before impact.
Felix Mendez was near home when he was killed
News reports identified the pedestrian as Felix Mendez, 49. The Daily News reported that he was crossing Lafayette Avenue just down the block from his Bedford-Stuyvesant home when the driver hit him.
The New York Post reported that Mendez was a Mexican immigrant who had come to the United States around 1999 and had worked to fund construction of a house in Puebla, Mexico. A friend and neighbor told the Post that Mendez's father had died in a hit-and-run in Mexico decades earlier.
Bedford Avenue has seen repeated harm
The fatal crash happened at Bedford Avenue and Lafayette Avenue in Brooklyn.
CrashCountNYC's location review 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.
Records and reporting point to speed and a red light
The official crash record lists unsafe speed and disregarding traffic control as factors for the SUV's driver. The Daily News reported that surveillance footage showed Mendez crossing with the light before the driver hit him, and that his body was carried through a red light after impact.
Medics took Mendez to the hospital as police searched for the driver
Medics took Mendez to NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, where he died, according to news reports. The Daily News reported on Oct. 10 that the driver had fled and had not been caught as police searched the area for surveillance footage.