Crime & Safety

VIDEO: Car Plows Down Brooklyn Sidewalk, Injures Boy

A mother's worst nightmare in South Williamsburg.

Screenshot via Yeshiva World News

WILLIAMSBURG, BROOKLYN — A lunatic in a black Toyota Camry plowed down a busy pedestrian sidewalk in the Orthodox Jewish section of Williamsburg just after 4 p.m. on Thursday afternoon, running over the foot of a young boy, according to the NYPD.

The driver, along with two or three buddies, had been caught using counterfeit bills at a string of businesses on Lee Street, and was trying to evade capture, police said.

Find out what's happening in Williamsburg-Greenpointfor free with the latest updates from Patch.

Yeshiva World News posted hard-to-watch video footage of the Camry going haywire in the streets of South Williamsburg as women and children jumped out of the way.


Find out what's happening in Williamsburg-Greenpointfor free with the latest updates from Patch.

"With total disregard for any human life, the suspects jumped into their vehicle and drove at high speed on a sidewalk packed with people — as most children only had a half a day of school due to Lag BaOmer," the Jewish site wrote.

Somehow, police said only one person was injured in the chaos: A 9-year-old boy standing at the intersection of Rodney Street and Lee Avenue. He was transported to Beth Israel Hospital and treated for injuries to his right foot, a police spokeswoman told Patch.

The video shows Orthodox men running after the car, beating it with their fists and even throwing a garbage can onto its windshield.

However, police said the criminal crew was able to bail from the vehicle before officers arrived. Only one of them — not believed to be the driver — was later hunted down by police, a spokeswoman said.

Ditmas Park resident Juavoni St. Victor, 19, who lives on East 18th Street right by the park, was arrested and charged with forgery and petit larceny, police said.

St. Victor has a huge rap sheet with the NYPD. He's been arrested for trying to commit three robberies within the past month alone, according to police — and, embarrassingly, for trying to pay for a tattoo he got at The Catrina Ink, located at Flatbush Avenue and Linden Boulevard, just a few blocks from his house.

NYPD detectives and Williamsburg's local Jewish police force are still on the lookout for the other suspects inside the Camry.

Together, the crew is accused of using large counterfeit bills to buy items under $3 from neighborhood shops, in order to collect the change in real bills — around $240 on Thursday alone. The businesses targeted, police said, were Panini La Cafe, a kosher restaurant at 45 Lee; Weingarten Health Food at 50 Lee; Stuart Slater Pharmacy at 63 Lee; and Rafieh Pharmacy at 70 Lee.

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