A 28-year-old nurse walking home from an overnight shift was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver in Sunset Park on Saturday morning, and the driver was still at large Sunday, the NYPD said.
Jiayi Zheng was crossing Third Avenue at 55th Street, under the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, shortly after 7:30 a.m. when a black 2014 Cadillac sedan traveling southbound hit her inside the marked crosswalk, police said. The car did not stop.
Zheng was taken to NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn with severe head and body trauma. She worked there as a medical-surgical nurse, and the hospital sits one block from the intersection. She was pronounced dead the same morning. She lived six blocks away on 55th Street, according to police.
State Sen. Andrew Gounardes, who announced her death on social media, said the driver "was speeding, drove through a red light" before fleeing, Fox 5 New York reported.
NYU Langone Health said in a statement that the system was deeply saddened and extended condolences to her family and colleagues. The Federation of Nurses/UFT, which represents nurses at the hospital, confirmed Zheng was a member and said her colleagues would honor the kindness she brought to the work.
Gothamist reported that hers is the fifth fatal hit-and-run in the city in the past two weeks.
Transportation Alternatives counts six pedestrians and five cyclists killed since 2014 along the two-mile stretch of Third Avenue that runs beneath the BQE. One of them was Clara Kang, another nurse at NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn, who was killed while biking home from work in 2020, a block from where Zheng was hit.
The NYPD Highway District's Collision Investigation Squad has the case. Investigators have identified the vehicle but not the driver, and no arrests have been made, amNewYork reported. Police asked anyone with information to call the Crime Stoppers hotline.