A Florida man has been arrested after a fatal hit-and-run on the Upper East Side, New York early Friday morning.Police said 44-year-old Terrill Jenkins was walking near the intersection of Lexington Avenue and East 61st Street just after 4:30 am when he was struck by a tractor-trailer.
The driver did not stop.According to the criminal complaint, a red oil truck was backing through the intersection when it ran over Jenkins. The truck then pulled forward, and the driver got out, walked over to Jenkins’ body, and returned to the truck before driving off.Witness Charlie Reyes said he tried to help Jenkins after finding him in the street. “They put him on the sidewalk,” he said. “He looked in bad shape, and I told him to be strong …
‘Be strong. You’re gonna be all right, buddy.’ I never know he passed away.”Several hours later, around 7 a.m., police said Vincent Spano, 33, arrived at a Brooklyn NYPD precinct, saying he thought he may have struck something. Officers linked Spano, from Palm Harbor, Florida, to the hit-and-run and arrested him. He faces charges of leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death and failure to exercise due care.
Jenkins was on his way to work at a Home Depot on First Avenue and was just three blocks away when the crash occurred, according to his family.“The driver thought about himself and didn’t do the moral thing,” said Peter Mulligan III, Jenkins’ cousin. He added that he found several aspects of the driver’s behaviour puzzling.
