A 71-year-old woman was killed Thursday when an SUV fleeing New York City police struck her and her daughter while they were crossing the street, according to authorities.
The daughter, 44, was injured in the incident in Brooklyn and was hospitalized in stable condition, according to the New York Post.
The victims’ names were not immediately released.
Police said the vehicle, a blue Mazda that was driven by a man, was being pursued over an unspecified traffic violation.
After the crash, which happened at about 5 p.m., the driver reportedly fled on foot toward the nearby Halsey Street subway station, eluding police. As of Thursday night, no one had been arrested.
The Post said the car that struck the pedestrians nearly hit another vehicle during the chase.
“A police car was following him with lights and sirens,” witness Sandra Villman, 56, said, according to the New York Daily News.
“It was very fast when the police was chasing; this vehicle was very fast,” she told the Post.
“The impact was like a boom, like an explosion, and I realized the car hit two people,” she said, per the Daily News.
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“One lady was unconscious, and they were trying to resuscitate her. There was no response.”
The Daily News report said the driver boarded a subway. Police later stopped trains on that line but did not find the man they were seeking.
Rodrigo Gonzalez, another witness of the tragedy, told the Post that one of the victims “was convulsing … they were doing CPR on the older woman and the man had already run away.”
The New York Police Department said car chases in the city were increasing as of last year.
According to The City, through the first three months of 2023, police engaged in 304 pursuits, which topped all of 2022, when there were 214.
NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell said police had adopted a more aggressive policy, according to the Daily News.
“People thinking they can take off on us — those days are over,” he said last year.
“Pursuing any car is inherently dangerous. You’ve got to strike that balance [of] when you’re going to do it, how you’re going to do it. … I tell bosses if you don’t think it’s a go, you call it off.”
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