Woman, 89, killed in Brooklyn by SUV driver, 86, who had medical episode

An 89-year-old woman was killed in Brooklyn Wednesday afternoon when a minivan driver having a medical episode backed into her on the sidewalk, also injuring two other women standing near her, cops said.

The 86-year-old driver of a red Chrysler Town & Country minivan, who may have been suffering a stroke, put his car into reverse, striking the elderly woman on the pavement around 12:51 p.m. near W. Fifth St. and Neptune Ave. in West Brighton, police sources said.

A witness to the incident, Andrew Melnyk, 20, a construction project manager who lives in Coney Island, said he saw paramedics doing CPR on the woman while the driver exited his car in “shock,” putting his head in his hands.

“The red minivan went out on the sidewalk. There were three women laid up in the flower bed by the broken pane of glass,” Melnyk said. “The woman who passed away was on the sidewalk by the flower bed. There was blood coming from her head and nose.”

EMS transported the woman to NYU Langone Hospital, where she died.

A 75-year-old woman and a 43-year-old woman were also struck in the incident. EMS transported both of them to NYU Langone Hospital, where they were in stable condition.

“People were telling the two other women that everything was going to be OK,” Melnyk said. “One of the women was saying ‘I have children. I have children’. Blood was coming from her nose.”

“I couldn’t put words to it, it was tragic and emotional,” Melnyk added.

The driver remained at the scene and was not arrested, and was later treated at NYU Langone, too, where he was in stable condition, cops said.

Originally Published: October 15, 2025 at 4:17 PM EDT