Hit-and-run driver who killed Queens couple arrested after 2-year investigation: NYPD

Thomas Tracy, New York Daily News
Updated ·2 min read

A hit-and-run driver who killed a married couple on New Year’s morning in Queens two years ago has been criminally charged, police said Thursday.

Anthony Martin was arrested Wednesday for criminally negligent homicide and leaving the scene of a fatal accident for the Jan. 1, 2021, crash on Rockaway Freeway near Ocean Crest Blvd. in Far Rockaway, cops said.

Thelma Reid, 60, and Donovan Gibbon, 57, were in a blue Nissan Rogue when Martin’s gray Dodge Ram T-boned them about 5 a.m., cops said.

Both Reid, who was driving, and Gibbon, in the passenger seat, were pinned in the sedan. They were rushed to St. John’s Episcopal Hospital but couldn’t be saved.

Martin, 37, managed to get out of the mangled wreck and bolt before first responders arrived, leaving his two passengers behind, police said.

A 37-year-old man riding in the truck suffered a head injury and was taken to Jamaica Hospital in stable condition. A 33-year-old male passenger also in the truck was taken into custody after arguing with investigators.

Investigators identified Martin as the driver early on but it took some time to prove that he was the man behind the wheel, police said. He lives in the Arverne area of the Rockaways, according to cops.

A judge ordered him held without bail during a brief arraignment in Queens Supreme Court Wednesday.

Gibbon and Reid, both from Jamaica, married in 2013 and worked at LSG Sky Chef’s catering company at Kennedy Airport, Reid’s niece, Renee Vrightly, told the Daily News after the crash.

“Even if she wasn’t working, she’d wait there for him and he’d do the same. They really did love each other,” Vrightly said. “They were both hardworking immigrants. They were churchgoing people. They were always together. Everything they did was together.”

The crash happened “right near their home,” she said.

“I don’t know how you can just leave the scene of an accident like that. I don’t understand it,” Vrightly said. “We are a very big family, very close knit. (Their death) left a huge hole in our family.”