Driver left scene after 4-year-old's fatal crash in Brownsville.
All My Boys
A driver described in police reports as operating a white Ford SUV left after fatally striking 4-year-old Zachariah Padilla near Rockaway Parkway and Linden Boulevard in Brownsville on March 5, 2026; the official record logs the crash at 11:05 a.m. on Rockaway Parkway.
Location reported in Open Data.
What We Know
Police reports say a driver left after striking Zachariah Padilla, 4, near Rockaway Parkway and Linden Boulevard. His mother, Harmonie Wright, said she carried him into Brookdale Hospital; reports said he was pronounced dead there. Accounts differ about which street the driver was traveling on before the collision, and reports conflict about whether Wright was also struck. A March 12 report said police had identified the vehicle model but had not identified the driver.
Reports describe different approaches to the collision.
Police reports identify the boy as 4-year-old Zachariah Padilla and say the driver left after striking him. His mother, Harmonie Wright, said she carried him into Brookdale Hospital; reports said he was pronounced dead there.
Wright told ABC7 that the driver struck her too. CBS initially reported that police said she was uninjured. The official record counts one pedestrian killed and one pedestrian injured but does not identify the injured person.
The crash happened near the hospital and a mid-block crossing.
The official record places the crash on Rockaway Parkway at 11:05 a.m. on March 5, 2026. Reports locate it near Linden Boulevard in Brownsville, outside Brookdale University Hospital. AmNewYork, citing police, described a mid-block crosswalk on Rockaway Parkway just north of Linden Boulevard.
Reports vary in how specifically they describe the vehicle.
News reports described a white Ford SUV, while amNewYork identified it as a Ford Explorer. The official record classifies the vehicle as a station wagon or sport utility vehicle.
Accounts differ about where the driver was traveling.
The official record lists the vehicle as traveling north and going straight on Rockaway Parkway. Gothamist, citing police, placed the driver on Linden Boulevard and the child running on Rockaway Parkway. AmNewYork, also citing police, described the child crossing Rockaway Parkway in a mid-block crosswalk just north of Linden Boulevard.
His parents spoke about their loss.
Wright told ABC7 that Zachariah was her youngest son and that her 21-year-old oldest son had been shot and killed the previous year. She said, "My house is silent. I don't hear no noise. All my boys make noise. I'm hurt right now."
News 12 identified Jose Padilla as Zachariah's father and reported that a memorial stood outside Brookdale, where Jose said his son was born. "I'm going to miss a lot of days," he said. "A lot of birthdays, a lot of celebrations. I'm going to miss him grow, to become the man he was supposed to be."
Police were still seeking the driver in a later report.
CBS reported on March 6 that police were searching for the driver and had security video they had not released. On March 12, News 12 reported that Jose Padilla said police had identified the vehicle model but not the driver.
Transportation Alternatives called for the city to lower the Rockaway Parkway speed limit from 25 to 20 miles per hour under Sammy's Law. The group said a speed camera at Linden Boulevard and Rockaway Parkway recorded 3,600 speeding detections in 2025; that figure does not establish the speed of the vehicle in this crash.