Police have arrested a man for the hit-and-run death of an immigrant father in Brooklyn, who was left traumatized after his own dad was killed in a hit-and-run in Mexico four decades ago.
Cops arrested Jerry Gelle, 31, Thursday — nine months after he allegedly killed Felix Mendez. Mendez was crossing the street at the intersection of Bedford Ave. and Lafayette Ave. in Bedford-Stuyvesant when Gelle plowed into him and sped off in his white SUV, dragging Mendez’s body for half a block, according to police.
Mendez, 49, immigrated in 1998 from Mexico, where he had been devastated as a young boy by the death of his father, who was struck by a hit-and-run driver while riding his bike, tragically mirroring Mendez’s own demise 40 years later.
“He remembered somebody come to his house,” said Alejandro Flores, a friend of Mendez and his downstairs neighbor of 20 years, describing Mendez’s memories of his father’s death. “They tell his mom, ‘Your father is dead in the road.’”
That driver was never caught, Flores told the Daily News shortly after Mendez died. Mendez went on to be extremely cautious whenever he rode a bike, making sure to don reflective clothing and encouraging his friends to do the same.
Mendez had just gotten home from work at one of his two jobs and was leaving his local bodega with a sandwich when Gelle plowed into him as Mendez was crossing Lafayette Ave., according to police and neighbors.
Video reviewed by The News showed Mendez had the right of way.
Medics rushed him to NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, where he died.
Gelle, who lives in Brooklyn, is charged with manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, leaving the scene of an accident, reckless endangerment, speeding and other charges.
