Search fatalities

Juanita Vidal

Age : 71

Gender : Female

Race : Latino/a/e

Date : 05/09/2024

Location : Eldert Street and Knickerbocker Avenue

City : New York

County : Brooklyn

State : New York

Agency : New York City Police Department

Officer(s) :Not Disclosed

Cause of Death : Vehicle

Event : Bystander killed by police chase crash

OPEN RECORDS SUMMARY :

.
REASON FOR CHASE: Bystander killed during police pursuit initiated over a stop-sign violation. NYPD officers attempted to stop the driver after observing him fail to stop at a stop sign. The driver continued driving away while police pursued. A lawsuit filed by Vidal's daughter alleges four NYPD officers engaged in the high-speed pursuit and did not activate their sirens.
NARRATIVE:
On 05/09/2024, 71-year-old Juanita Vidal was killed and her 44-year-old daughter, Jessica Vidal, was seriously injured when a driver being pursued by New York City police crashed into them as they crossed Eldert Street at Knickerbocker Avenue in Bushwick, Brooklyn.
.
The police encounter began when NYPD officers attempted to conduct a traffic stop after observing the driver fail to stop at a stop sign. The initiating offense was therefore a traffic violation rather than a violent crime.
.
The driver continued northbound on Eldert Street while police followed. Contemporary NYPD accounts said the officers initially lost sight of the vehicle, later saw it again, and the driver accelerated away. NYPD maintained that the vehicle took off before officers could reactivate their emergency lights.
.
Other evidence and witness accounts have raised questions about that characterization. Contemporary reporting described a marked NYPD vehicle following the Mazda immediately before the fatal collision, while a later lawsuit filed by Jessica Vidal alleges that four NYPD officers engaged in a high-speed pursuit and failed to activate their sirens during the chase.
.
The fleeing driver traveled at high speed along Eldert Street and ran another stop sign as he approached Knickerbocker Avenue. He swerved to avoid another vehicle and lost control as Juanita and Jessica Vidal were crossing the street.
.
The Mazda struck both women and then crashed into parked vehicles. Juanita Vidal suffered fatal injuries and was transported to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead. Jessica Vidal survived but suffered critical injuries, including multiple broken ribs and lung injuries.
.
Juanita and Jessica were uninvolved pedestrians. They were not connected to the driver, the attempted traffic stop or the police activity that preceded the collision.
.
The driver abandoned the Mazda and fled on foot following the crash. Police identified him as Robert Matthews, 26, and arrested him in July 2024. He was charged with 18 offenses, including manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and unlawful fleeing of a police officer in a motor vehicle.
.
Matthews was subsequently convicted and sentenced to five to 10 years in prison.
.
In August 2026, Jessica Vidal filed a lawsuit against New York City and four NYPD officers over the pursuit that killed her mother and seriously injured her. The lawsuit alleges that the officers' decision to engage in the high-speed chase over the traffic violation created a significant and foreseeable danger to pedestrians and other members of the public.
.
The lawsuit specifically alleges that officers pursued the vehicle without activating their sirens. That allegation is significant because contemporary witness accounts were inconsistent about the officers' emergency equipment. One witness told NY1 she did not recall hearing police sirens, while another witness quoted by the New York Daily News reported seeing a police vehicle following with emergency lights and sirens.
.
The civil lawsuit names four individual NYPD officers and the City of New York as defendants and challenges the officers' decision to undertake and continue the pursuit, rather than merely attributing Vidal's death to the actions of the fleeing driver.
.
Juanita Vidal's death is a confirmed police-pursuit fatality. She was an uninvolved pedestrian killed when the vehicle being pursued by NYPD officers crashed into her during a pursuit initiated over a stop-sign violation.

SOURCE LINKS :

https://westchester.news12.com/family-sues-city-nypd-officers-over-deadly-2024-bushwick-crash
https://brooklyn.news12.com/2024/07/23/police-26-year-old-faces-18-charges-in-fatal-hit-and-run-crash-in-bushwick/5azL21ZB8LPQu5h8BlQ93R
https://brooklyn.news12.com/2024/07/24/nypd-26-year-old-arrested-in-connection-to-deadly-hit-and-run-in-bushwick/51ESiwAnxfhuFnp2j8MDGB
https://brooklyn.news12.com/2024/05/16/nypd-mother-killed-daughter-injured-in-bushwick-hit-and-run/4PLcHhtenJFgVMLXubjTA1
https://brooklyn.news12.com/nypd-driver-wanted-for-hitting-2-women-killing-1-in-bushwick
https://ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/public-safety/2024/05/11/mother-daughter-mothers-day-police-chase-nypd-bushwick-brooklyn-blue-mazda-crime
https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/deadly-brooklyn-hit-and-run-suspect-arrested/