Disturbing surveillance video shows an MTA bus hit and kill a 70-year-old woman as she tried to cross a Brooklyn street Tuesday, then drive away.
The video obtained by NBC 4 New York shows the woman in a green sweatshirt standing on the side of the road at Fulton and Sackman streets in the Ocean Hill section of Brooklyn, waiting for cars to go by.
As she starts to use her walker to move across the street, the bus, which is not in service, pulls into the intersection from across the street and moves to make a left turn in her direction.
The bus plows into her just as she crosses the double yellow line, sending both the woman and her walker flying. The bus stops briefly, the video shows, then pulls around the victim and drives off down the street.
"He stopped and then started going on so I don't know if he was nervous or he didn't realize," said Eli Fulton, who owns a lumber shop in the area.
The woman, identified by sources and neighbors as Carol Bell, was pronounced dead at the scene. A crumpled, broken walker sat in the roadway as authorities cordoned off the area with police tape.
The MTA said the bus was returning to the East New York depot after finishing a B15 run at the time of the crash. The MTA said the bus driver, who the agency identified as Paul Roper, has been suspended without pay pending the outcome of the investigation.
Roper was charged Tuesday with leaving the scene of an accident, a felony, failure to yield and other traffic offenses. He said nothing as he was led from the police precinct. It wasn't immediately clear if he had an attorney.
Roper's mother and brother said he has been driving for at least 15 years. They said they didn't believe he saw the victim, and declined to comment further.
Friend Raymond Jemmett told NBC 4 New York said Roper would never take off after knowing he'd hit someone.
"I don't know how this tragedy happened," he said. "I heard him say he didn't see it. And I believe him, I don't think he seen the person."
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Those who knew the victim, including Jennifer Gonzalez, described her as a "very sweet lady." Gonzalez said the woman lived at a women's shelter a block and a half from where she was killed.
Friend Tracy Harvey added: "She was a sweetheart. A sweetheart."
