NYPD vehicle headed to emergency call kills Queens woman in Far Rockaway; ‘Cop car was going really fast’

A woman on her way home from a health aide job died when an NYPD vehicle responding to an emergency call in Queens struck her in a wild crash, police and witnesses said Saturday.

The 52-year-old victim was standing in a bicycle lane on Beach Channel Drive near Beach 32nd St. in Far Rockaway about 8:30 p.m. Friday when the out-of-control marked NYPD Ford Explorer carrying four cops rammed into her, police and witnesses said.

The deceased woman had just finished work at the nearby home of Johanna Stoehr, 68. Stoehr said the aide was at her home three times each week.

“I told her, ‘You want to take a taxi?’” Stoehr recounted to the Daily News. “She said, ‘No, no, no, I’ll walk.’ And she walked over there” — to the accident scene, near Stoehr’s home.

“That’s the last time I saw her.”

As the health aide headed home, the police officers were driving west on Beach Channel Drive in response to a call about an officer needing assistance, police said.

Kevin Garcia, who works at the Food Universe supermarket at the shopping center, had just stepped outside the store when the back-to-back crashes occurred.

“I look up. All I hear is the police car — you know the ‘briiing!’ (noise) — as they’re responding to a call,” the still-stunned witness said Saturday.

The police SUV tried to zip around a 2020 Toyota Corolla in front of them driven by a 44-year-old woman, said cops.

The cops’ SUV had its siren on, but the 44-year-old woman driving the Corolla “failed to observe” the NYPD vehicle as it approached from behind, said police.

As the Corolla tried to turn left onto Beach 32nd St., the speeding police vehicle slammed into its driver side, said cops. The collision set the Corolla spinning, police said.

“I heard the cop (siren) and then I heard the boom!” Garcia recounted.

The NYPD vehicle then veered toward the bicycle lane, where the fallen woman was standing. “I guess she flew,” said Garcia, 22. “The cop car was going really fast.”

After hitting the woman standing in the bike lane, the NYPD vehicle vaulted the curb and headed toward the Beach Channel Shopping Center parking lot, police said.

“It came straight into the parking lot,” Garcia said. The NYPD vehicle came to a stop when it struck a Honda sedan.

“I didn’t see it hit the pedestrian until I went closer and I saw a lady lying down on the floor,” Garcia said.

The severely injured health aide, a Queens resident whose name had not been officially released late Saturday, was sprawled out on the roadway suffering from a massive head injury.

“The cops were worried about the person they hit,” Garcia recalled. “When they got out of the car they got out with the first aid kit, and tried to do anything they could.”

The officers performed “intense CPR” on the woman, Garcia said.

EMS quickly arrived, but “there were no signs of life,” the supermarket employee said. EMS took her to Jamaica Hospital where she was declared dead.

“An impact like that... I don’t want to assume, but I don’t feel like anybody would have (survived),” Garcia said. “It’s really sad what happened.”

On Saturday morning, police caution tape still lined the bustling shopping strip. A pair of long skid marks ran from the intersection onto the sidewalk and into the parking lot.

The NYPD would not disclose the exact nature of the emergency call that led to the fatal crash.

Byron Posada, 18, was with his little brother in Bayswater Park across the street just before the crash.

“I leave and then five minutes later the whole accident happens,” he told The News. “If I had stayed there five minutes later, I would’ve seen it happen, and it could have been us.

“It could have been us,” he said.

The four cops were taken to Mount Sinai South Nassau Hospital with minor injuries. The woman driving the Toyota was not harmed.

No one has been charged or disciplined for the crash as the investigation continues, an NYPD spokeswoman said.

Residents said the streets around the crash scene Far Rockaway aren’t clearly marked. Speeding isn’t enforced either, they said.

“This is like the second time somebody’s been hit around here,” Jasmine Carson, 30, said. “People speed up and down all day long. I’m even scared to come over here now.

“This is like the forgotten part of Queens,” she said.

With Emma Seiwell