School bus driver charged after 11-year-old dies in Bath Beach
Quiet
Driver Wawa Aurelus was turning a school bus at 23rd Avenue and Bath Avenue in Brooklyn at 3:05 p.m. on February 5, 2026, when he struck 11-year-old Amira Aminova, whom the city crash record says was crossing with the signal.
Location reported in Open Data.
What We Know
Driver Wawa Aurelus was turning a school bus at 23rd Avenue and Bath Avenue in Brooklyn at 3:05 p.m. on February 5, 2026, when he struck 11-year-old Amira Aminova, according to police accounts reported by Brooklyn Paper. The city crash record says Aminova was crossing with the signal, and police accounts placed her in a marked crosswalk. Police said Aurelus did not remain at the scene and later charged him with failure to yield and failure to exercise due care. Reports differed on when police stopped him and whether he knew he had hit someone.
The bus turned across Amira's path.
Police accounts reported by Brooklyn Paper say Aurelus, 62, was driving a 2018 Blue Bird school bus south on 23rd Avenue and turning right onto westbound Bath Avenue when he struck Amira in the marked crosswalk. The city crash record says Amira, 11, was crossing with the signal and lists failure to yield as a contributing factor.
Accounts differ about which avenue Amira was crossing: an initial CBS report said 23rd Avenue, while later CBS coverage and Brooklyn Paper's account placed her on Bath Avenue. Video descriptions also differ: ABC7 said she darted across as the bus turned, while the Daily News described footage showing her begin crossing in a crosswalk and then run after noticing the turning bus.
Neighbors remembered Amira.
News 12 reported that Amira attended I.S. 281, a few blocks from the crash, and CBS reported that neighbors left a teddy bear, candles and her favorite candy at a memorial. Neighbor Amella Cekic told CBS: "A beautiful little girl, always smiling, happy, you know. You never saw her being rude," she said.
The Brooklyn Home Reporter said a fundraiser for Amira's mother, Zilola, reported that they had come to the United States from Uzbekistan several years earlier and sought help with funeral costs. The fundraiser had raised $38,469 by February 11.
Police filed two traffic charges.
Police later arrested Aurelus and charged him with failure to yield to a pedestrian and failure to exercise due care. CBS reported that police said Aurelus told them he had not realized he hit someone and that he was not charged with leaving the scene. In its earlier report, CBS said awareness was unclear and quoted Sen. Stephen Chan expressing his opinion that the driver knew.
Accounts differ on when police stopped Aurelus: the Daily News said he was stopped minutes after the crash, a short distance away; ABC7 reported that police located him hours later, several miles away in Brooklyn.
The crash prompted calls for safer streets.
Residents, elected officials and advocates later held a vigil and called for increased traffic-safety measures. The Brooklyn Home Reporter said Assemblymember William Colton urged the city transportation department to study Bath Avenue; it also reported that Councilmembers Kayla Santosuosso and Susan Zhuang sent crisis management teams to Amira's school.
Where
23 AVE and BATH AVE