A 7-year-old boy was fatally struck by an NYPD tow truck as he walked with his mother in Brooklyn Thursday morning, cops said.
The mother and son were crossing Myrtle Avenue at the North Portland Avenue intersection – just outside Fort Greene Park – around 7:50 a.m. when the child was struck by the truck, authorities said.
Heartbreaking video showed the shocked woman sitting in the crosswalk next to her son’s little body, which was covered in a white sheet, as investigators crouched down to speak to her and bystanders looked on from the sidewalk behind crime scene tape.
The driver of the NYPD vehicle – a civilian employee of the department – was making a right turn onto North Portland Avenue and hit the child while passing the crosswalk, police said.
The boy fell to the ground, and the driver stopped immediately, authorities said.
EMS workers pronounced the child dead at the scene. His name was not immediately released.
“No parent wants to start their day losing a loved one to any form of incident,” Mayor Eric Adams said at a press conference about the deadly crash later Thursday morning. “So it is really, it’s heart wrenching for all of us.”
The NYPD’s Collision Investigation Squad is probing the deadly incident.
The driver – who had a vehicle on the hitch of the truck and was heading to the Brooklyn tow pound – stayed at the scene to be questioned by investigators, police said.
Police could not confirm whether the youngster was heading to school when he was fatally struck, but NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey, who was at the site of the tragedy, said the boy’s teachers were also present.
“My heart goes out to the family of that young boy and his mother and the school teachers who were also on the scene,” he told reporters. “It was a very tough scene to be at this morning.”
The non-profit organization Transportation Alternatives mourned the boy’s death and said the city hasn’t been doing enough to prevent such tragedies.
“We are furious to hear that the driver of an NYPD tow truck struck and killed a 7-year-old boy today,” the organization said in a statement. “No parent should have to bury their own child, and this devastating crash robbed this boy of the future he deserved to have.
“Every single crash is preventable,” the statement continued. “We know how to make our streets safe for everyone, especially the youngest New Yorkers.
“New Yorkers have had enough with this administration’s excuses on street safety. How many more children have to die before Mayor Adams takes action?”
The crash happened just blocks from the fatal hit-and-run that killed 3-month-old Apolline Mong Guillemin and left her mother seriously injured in Clinton Hill on Sept. 11, 2021.
Motorist Tyrik Mott had been driving the wrong way down Gates Avenue when he blew a red light and collided with another car on Vanderbilt Avenue, killing the baby being pushed in a stroller by her mom on the sidewalk, cops said at the time.
Mott, 30, who previously racked up 160 traffic violations, then bolted the scene and attempted to carjack another vehicle before he was caught by police officers, according to prosecutors.
He was sentenced to nine years behind bars over the summer.