NYPD van fatally strikes panhandler on Brooklyn street

An NYPD van struck and killed a man begging for change on a Brooklyn street Thursday night, police and a witness said.

The marked van was traveling on Eastern Parkway when it collided with the victim, who is believed to have been homeless, near Schenectady Ave. in Crown Heights about 8:10 p.m., an NYPD spokesman said.

Witness Dequan Bass, 59, said the man was standing in his usual spot — the painted median in the middle of the street — when the van hit him.

“The brother was in the middle of the street. He stood there every day, trying to get a few dollars to eat,” Bass said. “He begged for change and quarters before the light would change from different cars.”

Bass said he saw the gruesome moment of impact, and the van drag the victim about 35 feet.

“The light was about to change and the van was trying to make it,” he said. “They came through and hit him. Boom! It was like the sound of two cars crashing.”

He added: “I was shouting, ‘Yo, you’re dragging him!’ They dragged him down the block. He was under the van, and I said, ‘Yo, he’s dead.’”

An officer tried to resuscitate the man, with no success, Bass said. “He touched his neck and then he stopped. He was gone,” Bass said.

The man, who has not yet been identified, was taken to Kings County Hospital, but he couldn’t be saved.

Police were still investigating the crash Thursday night.