Tow truck driver, 30, released on legal loophole after deadly, one-punch attack on NYC man, 61
A Brooklyn tow truck driver accused in a fatal attack on a 61-year-old man whose car he was impounding was cut loose Monday thanks to a legal loophole, prosecutors said.
Kevon M. Johnson, 30, allegedly delivered a single punch that sent Carlyle Thomas, 61, barreling into the pavement where he fatally struck his head during an argument that broke out over a $10 parking spot at a Brownsville Shell gas station Saturday, authorities said.
He was granted supervised released at his arraignment Monday on a charge of third-degree assault, prosecutors said.
“The law allows only for charges relating to the punch and there is no way to prove intent to cause his death or any other serious injury,” a law enforcement source told The Post, explaining the low-level charge that the so-called “one-punch homicide” offense calls for.
Further working in Johnson’s favor, the misdemeanor charge hasn’t been bail-eligible since the statewide bail reforms enacted in 2020, the source said.
A friend of Thomas previously told The Post that the victim lived right next door to the station on Clarkson Avenue and sometimes parked temporarily in the Shell’s parking spots.
On Saturday evening at around 8:45 p.m., someone called Thomas to warn him that the gas station manager had called a tow truck to impound his car, the friend said.
“He came running. He open the door of the tow truck and the guy punch him in the head! He go down and bam!,” the tipster said.
“Dead. He die right there in front of pump 6! He never touch the guy, only touch his door and the guy come out and punch him.
“He’s a cool guy. Got a young son. Why they do that to him! One punch? Kill him?!”
Thomas, a former horse jockey who worked at Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens, has a son, daughter and step-children, his loved ones said.
His step-daughters told The Post the gas station would charge people in the neighborhood $10 to park overnight if they couldn’t find a spot on the street — but that Thomas had a relationship with the shop and sometimes wouldn’t pay until after he got his car.
“He’s lived here a long time and has a relationship with them, so he didn’t pay right away,” his step-daughter Andrele Peter’s said, adding that once he found out his car was being towed, he went down to investigate.
“He’s verbally arguing with the tow truck guy and from what I hear next the guy hits him so hard he fell to the floor and his heart stopped. That hit was so hard to the floor he died here. He didn’t make it to the hospital and the hospital is three minutes away.”
His other step-daughter Alexis Peters echoed the sentiment.
“He always tried to help them out any way he could. And he did pay to park! But sometimes, you know, I mean they’re friends, so sometimes he paid after when he came back,” she said.
“Why he got to die over $10? He’s short, he’s shorter than my sister here. He’s a little man, you got to punch him like that? You got to kill him over $10?!”
