Police Charged a Driver After a Fatal Upper East Side Hit-and-Run.
Three Blocks
Vincent Spano was charged after prosecutors said he backed an oil truck into Terrill Jenkins and drove away; the city records one pedestrian killed at Lexington Avenue and East 61st Street at 4:40 a.m. on March 20, 2026.
Location reported in Open Data.
What We Know
Police said Vincent Spano was charged after prosecutors alleged he backed an oil truck into Terrill Jenkins and left the scene. A later criminal-complaint account said Spano stopped to check on Jenkins before driving away, while earlier reports said the driver did not stop. The city record places the crash at Lexington Avenue and East 61st Street at 4:40 a.m. on March 20, 2026, and records one pedestrian killed.
The complaint account differs from early reports.
A criminal complaint reported by the Daily News alleged that Vincent Spano backed an oil truck through the intersection into Terrill Jenkins, 44, who was in the crosswalk. The complaint said Spano pulled forward, stopped, got out to check on Jenkins, returned to the truck and drove away.
An earlier Daily News story, citing witnesses, described a southbound car and said its driver never stopped. NY1 attributed to investigators an account in which the driver backed a tractor-trailer against traffic and continued south without stopping. The official vehicle record lists its travel direction as north.
The official record gives the crash time as 4:40 a.m. on March 20, 2026, and counts one pedestrian killed. Reports placed the incident at different times, from just after 4:30 a.m. to just before 4:55 a.m.
At Lexington Avenue and East 61st Street.
The official record locates the crash at Lexington Avenue and East 61st Street in Manhattan. ABC7 and the Daily News identify the corner as part of the Upper East Side.
Jenkins was heading to work.
Jenkins lived in Harlem and was heading to his Home Depot job, about three blocks away, the Daily News reported. The newspaper also reported that he called coworkers while losing consciousness. His family criticized Spano for leaving and said they wanted to see video of the crash.
Reports describe different vehicles.
The crash record classifies the vehicle as a 2004 tanker and records backing before impact. The Daily News, citing a complaint, said Spano was operating a dark-green and red oil truck. CBS described a tractor-trailer in its police account and a red oil truck in its account of the complaint; an earlier Daily News story, citing witnesses, called it a car. These accounts differ on the vehicle description.
Spano was arrested and charged.
The Daily News reported that police arrested Spano after he went to the 76th Precinct in Brooklyn around 7 a.m. and told officers he was responsible. He was charged with leaving the scene of a fatal crash and failure to exercise due care.
The Daily News reported that EMS took Jenkins to NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, where he died about three hours later. East Side Feed reported that Spano pleaded not guilty and was released with non-monetary conditions; the Daily News reported that a judge granted supervised release after prosecutors requested bail.