Gravesend man charged in fatal Flatlands hit-and-run

July 4, 2014 Heather Chin
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Robert Decarlo, 26, has been arrested and charged with a long list of charges, including manslaughter and leaving the scene of an accident, in the hit-and-run death of 12-year-old Joey Sellers on a Flatlands sidewalk on Wednesday afternoon, July 2.

Decarlo was reportedly walking to the 62nd Precinct in Bensonhurst in order to turn himself in for the crash–which also seriously injured Sellers’ mother Marsha Landais and little sister Charlie Sellers, 9, who required brain surgery–when officers recognized and arrested him at around 1 p.m. on Thursday, July 3.

The two girls and their mother had been standing at a bus stop on Flatlands Avenue at East 46th Street at around 4:40 p.m. when Decarlo lost control of a stolen 2005 Dodge Caravan and plowed into them. The elder Sellers had just returned from summer camp.

Decarlo was led out of the station in cuffs shortly after 8 p.m. and arraigned on charges of manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, assault, leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death and in injury, grand larceny, reckless endangerment and unauthorized use of a vehicle.

He was also ticketed on citations of speeding and running a red light.

This isn’t Decarlo’s first brush with the law. Less than 24 hours before the car accident, he was released on bond for the March 21 robbery and assault of 65-year-old Alla Rutitskaya.

He had also been arrested on various drug possession charges over the past few months.

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