Vermont driver arrested for fatal 2023 Coney Island crash

November 29, 2024 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

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CONEY ISLAND – A VERMONT MAN was arrested this week over a hit-and-run that claimed the life of Coney Island mother Tamika Richards in March of 2023, reports the Daily News. Mitchell Maldonado, 33, was brought to the city by police on Wednesday from Vermont, where he was serving time in prison for a burglary. Maldonado was indicted by a grand jury for the hit-and-run earlier this year, and is charged with leaving the scene of an accident and failure to yield to a pedestrian.

Richards, 41, was a mother of six, and was killed on March 3, 2023 when she and her son Rayquan Parker were struck by a speeding pickup truck while crossing Mermaid Avenue. The teenager said that his mother shielded him from the force of the truck with her body and took the brunt of the hit, potentially saving his life. He was seriously injured in the crash and is in physical therapy.

Over 1,000 supporters signed a petition pushing for an honorary street renaming at the intersection where Richards died, in memory of her sacrifice: “Our sister was a FEARLESS spirit, a provider, a protector…. but most of all she was a HERO. What other way more fitting to honor an act of heroism?” Richards’ sister Shavonna Folks wrote.

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