NUN STRUCK AND KILLED IN PEDESTRIAN KNOCK-DOWN, POLICE CHASE, CAR ACCIDENT
From: New York attorney Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens1 Bronx; Queens Injury Attorney)
On Tuesday, June 21, 2010, at about 9:30 AM, a van running from a police chase crashed out of control and plowed into a cluster of pedestrians. Killed was 83 year-old Catholic nun Sister Mary Celine Graham. Four others were injured.
Sister Mary Celine was waiting with a home health aide to cross Harlem's Lenox Avenue and West 122nd Street when a blue Chrysler van banged into them. The force of the impact hurled them across the roadway
Sister Mary Celine was taken to Harlem Hospital, where she was declared dead. Her aide, Patricia Cruz, age 58, was in critical condition at the hospital with serious internal injuries
According to police, officer were chasing the van because it contained three suspects wanted in connection with an armed robbery that had recently taken place.
Officers stopped the van and removed the driver, one of the passengers jumped behind the wheel and took off on Lenox Avenue.
According to an eyewitness, the van ran through a red light, struck a Honda Odyssey and hit the pedestrians. "It made a loud impact like an explosion," said the witness. The two men remaining in the van took off running. They are being sought by authorities. The driver who was apprehended faces a variety of criminal charges.
A woman, Amy Feinberg, of New Jersey, and her teenage, Jared, who occupied the Honda, were in stable condition at Manhattan's St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center, the police said. Ms. Feinberg has brain hemorrhaging (bleeding) and traumatic brain injury (TBI).
Comment: The police are not supposed to engage in high speed chases when to do so would endanger innocent others.
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1QUEENS COUNTY COMMUNITIES: Serving Queens neighborhoods of: Arverne, Astoria, Auburndale, Bayside, Beechhurst, Bellaire, Belle Harbor, Bellerose, Blissville, Breezy Point, Briarwood, Broad Channel, Cambria Heights, College Point, Corona, Douglaston, East Elmhurst, Edgemere, Elmhurst, Far Rockaway, Flushing, Forest Hills, Fresh Meadows, Fresh Pond, Glen Oaks, Glendale, Hillcrest, Hollis, Holliswood, Howard Beach, Hunters Point, Jackson Heights, Jamaica, Jamaica Estates, Jamaica Hills, Kew Gardens, Laurelton, Lefrak City, Linden Hill, Lindenwood, Little Neck, Long Island City, Malba, Maspeth, Middle Village, Murray Hill, Neponsit, Oakland Gardens, Ozone Park, Pomonok, Queens Village, Queensboro Hill, Rego Park, Richmond Hill, Ridgewood, Rockaway Park, Rockaway Point, Rosedale, Saint Albans, Seaside, South Jamaica, South Ozone Park, Springfield Gardens, Steinway, Sunnyside, Utopia, Wave Crest, Whitestone, Woodhaven and Woodside.
