Police have arrested a 73-year-old man whose SUV smashed into a fast-food restaurant in the Bronx Thursday evening, killing a 7-year-old boy and injuring a 5-year-old girl and a 34-year-old man.
Kwasi Oduro has been charged with leaving the scene of an accident causing death and leaving the scene of an accident causing injury, according to police. It wasn't immediately known if Oduro had an attorney.
Police said Oduro's Mercedes Benz SUV reversed into the Kennedy Fried Chicken restaurant on Westchester Avenue in Pelham Bay, underneath the elevated 6 train line.
The restaurant owner, Shah Mohammed, said a man and two children were sitting at a booth right next to the window when the car reverse-slammed into the eatery, shearing off the front bumper of a car parked outside along the way.
"I just saw the car into the store, It was a massive explosion. I got scared," said witness Giovanni Martinez.
The driver sat inside the SUV for about 30 seconds as people banged on his window and yelled that there were children underneath the car, the restaurant owner and other witnesses told NBC 4 New York. The driver never got out of the car, and then he drove off westbound on Westchester Avenue.
Meanwhile, bystanders rushed to help the children. One man, Noel Lopez, said some of them had to lift a table to get the girl out. He said he feared the worst and "thought her legs were gone."
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"I was almost bawling myself," he said. "I have a kid myself, It was crazy to see."
"It was a horrible moment," said Mohammed. "I'll remember it forever."
Witness Shawkie Elgedawe and another man chased after the driver, writing down the license plate number on his hand in case the driver got away. They were able to catch up briefly before the driver got away a second time.
That's when they flagged down traffic enforcement agents stopped at a red light, and the officers caught up with the driver at Continental Avenue, police and the witnesses said.
The man and two children were taken to Jacobi Medical Center, where the boy, identified as Ethan Villavicencio, was pronounced dead, police said. The man and the girl are in stable condition.
"I feel bad for the family, they gotta go through that now," said Martinez. "My prayers are with the family."
