A 24-year-old driver was arrested in connection with the brutal crash that killed a “loving” grandfather, who was catapulted into the air and onto a Brooklyn street last month, police said.
Brian Macoto-Morales, of Homecrest, turned himself in at the 83rd Precinct Thursday morning and faced several charges for allegedly mowing down 74-year-old Segundo Reina-Gaon as he crossed a Bay Ridge street on Sept. 11, according to police and the police. sources.
Surveillance footage captured the moment Macoto-Morales’ white SUV crashed into Reina-Gaon — sending the septuagenarian into a parked car from the crosswalk and then onto the sidewalk at Ridge Boulevard and Bay Ridge Avenue around 9 p.m.
The white SUV crashed into him as he was driving north on Ridge Boulevard, police said.
EMTs rushed Reina-Gaon to NYU Langone Hospital/Brooklyn, but he could not be saved.
On a GoFundMe page created by his niece, he was described as a “loving father and husband” who left behind 20 grandchildren and five children.
One donor remembered Reina-Gaon as a friendly neighbor.
“He watched our son grow from a stroller to daycare and now walk to school,” Justin Hall wrote on the page. “He always had a smile on his face and asked how our son was doing, even when he wasn’t with us.
“We will really miss your smiling face every morning.”
After the fatal crash, Sen. Andrew Gounardes (D-Brooklyn), who represents the area, said the motorist “should be apprehended and prosecuted.”
“The video is hard to watch,” he wrote on X. “It looks like the driver isn’t even slowing down.”
Macoto-Morales was charged with leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death, leaving the scene of an accident causing serious injury, reckless endangerment and failure to obey traffic laws.
Police say he has no prior arrests.
He was arraigned Thursday in Brooklyn Supreme Court and held on $75,000 bail, according to court records.
His next court date is set for January 7.
