Hit-and-run driver kills Brooklyn restaurant worker in front of son: ‘He just kept going’
A hit-and-run driver in a red Dodge Charger mowed down a 42-year-old restaurant worker as he crossed a Brooklyn street with his adult son, hitting the victim so hard the man’s cellphone ended up embedded in the muscle car’s grill, officials said Saturday.
“I hear that noise,” Pascual Tziquin’s son Henry Tziquin told the Daily News, recalling the fatal June 22 crash. “I turn around and [think] ‘Where’s my dad?’”
Henry, 22, looked around only to see his father sprawled out on the asphalt.
“I see him on the floor,” he said, the horror show once again unfolding in his mind. “His eyes were closed. I’m scared … I don’t know what to do.”
Pascual was crossing the corner of New Utrecht Ave. and 72 St. in Bensonhurst at about 3:20 a.m. when he was struck by the Charger. HIs son was a step or two ahead of him.
“He didn’t stop,” Henry Tziquin said about the driver. “He just kept going.”
Responding officers tracked down and arrested the driver, who they identified as 21-year-old Christian Gonzalez, pulling him over about seven blocks from the crash.
When Henry came to the spot where they pulled Gonzalez over, he found his father’s cellphone sticking out of the grill, he said.
Pascual suffered a massive head injury and was rushed to Maimonides Medical Center where he was put on life support. He died of his injuries eight days later.
Henry kept a vigil by his father’s bedside for a week, hoping for some signs of life, but Pascual never regained consciousness.
“We are there with him, watching and waiting for him to wake up, but he never opened his eyes,” he recalled. “He never moved. Never. never.”
Cops charged Gonzalez with leaving the scene of an accident without reporting it and improper or unsafe turns or lane changes without using a signal. Gonzalez, who lives in Pennsylvania, was later released following an arraignment in Brooklyn criminal court.
Upgraded charges are expected now that Tziquin has died of his injuries, officials said.
Pascual and his son immigrated to the U.S. from Guatemala two years ago and would often send money back home to relatives.
“He’s a good man. He works hard. Sometimes he goes out with a friend, has some fun,” Henry Tziquin said. “We’re looking for a better life in this country. That’s why we work. We work hard. We’re not looking for problems.”
Obtained by Daily News
Pascual Tziquin lingered comatose in a hospital for a week following the June 22 hit-and-run crash that ultimately claimed his life. (Obtained by Daily News)
Henry is hoping to raise money to bury his father back in Guatemala and is hoping the driver can be held financially liable.
“I don’t know what to do now,” he said. “I’ve got my brothers. I’ve got my mother.”
“Losing your dad’s not easy. Your dad’s your dad,” he added. “My mom’s crying. My brothers’ crying. I don’t know what I’m going to do now.”
As of Thursday, 55 pedestrians have been killed by vehicles while crossing city streets this year — eight less than the 63 pedestrian fatalities reported this time last year, cops said.
With Thomas Tracy
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