The NYPD late Friday charged the driver of a speeding BMW in a horrific hit-and-run crash that killed two men, including an 80-year-old Chinese immigrant whose heartbroken son told the News he was devastated by the pre-dawn tragedy.
Police arrested 23-year-old Juventino Anastacio Florentino after his mangled sedan was found sitting in the driveway of a Staten Island home, police sources said. He is facing a slew of charges including two counts each of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide.
Rose Abuin / New York Daily News
Juventino Anastacio Florentino, 23, is pictured in police custody outside the NYPD 120th Precinct station house in Staten Island, New York City on Friday, July 11, 2025. Florentino is charged with manslaughter in the hit and run death of two pedestrians in Sunset Park. (Rose Abuin / New York Daily News)
Police said the victims, 59-year-old Faqiu Lin and 80-year-old Kex Un Chen, both of Brooklyn, were crossing the southbound side of Third Ave. under the elevated Gowanus Expressway when the car plowed into them.
Video reviewed by the News shows a horrific scene as the bodies of both men were sent flying by the impact. The BMW was spotted fleeing the scene following the 4:22 a.m. crash on Third Ave. at 52nd St. in Sunset Park.
“We’re very heartbroken,” said Chen’s son, Qin Xiao Chen, 46. “He was a good person. In China, he was a vegetable farmer. We don’t know where he was going at that hour. He was very independent and true to his word. He wanted to earn things on his own,” he said.
Chen immigrated to NYC from Fujian, China in 2016 to be with his family, his son said. He had two sons and a daughter and three grandchildren. He lived with his son, a sushi chef, and two of his grandchildren in Brooklyn.
“If he brought anything home, he would share it with everybody,” his son described him. “He was selfless.”
The son said he did not know the other victim.
Both men had empty shopping carts, and Chen walked with the assistance of a cane, video recovered by the Daily News shows. Several people ahead of them crossed the avenue against the light without any problem.
“I saw the BMW fly in front of me,” a neighborhood business owner coming to work at around the time of the crash told the Daily News. The business owner, who would only identify himself as Gregory, was stopped at a light a block away when the sedan sped past. “I said, “Why the hell is this guy flying so fast?”
A moment later, Gregory, 50, discovered why.
“I go around the block and I saw [the bodies],” he said, horrified. “One was on the sidewalk, and one was by the bus stop. One was facing up and one was faced down. The [one] facing up, I see his face was opened.”
The two victims first crossed the avenue against the light, but their light changed green as they reached the middle of the street. A moment later, the black car speeds through, hurtling both victims high into the air.
Another driver not involved in the crash stopped and called 911, Gregory recalled.
“He came over looking to help. And nothing,” Gregory said, adding that the injuries to the victims were too severe. “The face of one of the victims was smashed so badly. From the nose to the top of the head it was open.”
“I’m feeling really terrible. Because I saw it with my eyes,” he said. “It’s not my friends who died, but I feel it personally. It’s terrible.”
The BMW must have been going about 70 miles per hour when it struck the two men, Gregory estimated.
In addition to the manslaughter and criminally negligent charges, police charged Florentino with leaving the scene of an incident without reporting, reckless endangerment, reckless driving, disobey steady red light and speed not reasonable and prudent.
“He fly, like not even hit the brakes,” he said, adding that the driver must have seen the first group of people crossing the wide and well-lit three-lane avenue. “If you’re a driver and you see eight people cross in front of you, and you see more people are crossing, you have to slow down.”
Both men died at the scene, said cops.
The BMW driver continued south on Third Ave. without stopping.
Cops scoured the area for surveillance footage that ultimately helped them track down the BMW and the driver, cops said.
“If [the driver] slowed down, three seconds, five seconds, it’d be different,” Gregory said. “We’d have two people living.”
As of Monday, 56 people have been fatally struck by vehicles in the city in 2025, compared with 68 by this time last year, officials said.
Originally Published: July 11, 2025 at 8:44 AM EDT
