A driver was arrested after running down a man with her car outside a Queens deli, killing him — even though he was not the person police said she may have been aiming for.
Police on Monday said that 26-year-old Kiani Phoenix was arrested and faces a slew of charges, including murder, attempted murder, assault, reckless endangerment and weapons possession. The arrest comes after she allegedly ran over a 59-year-old bystander in a walker following a brawl she got into with another woman at the Rohan Deli on Beach 20th Street in Far Rockaway before 7 a.m. Saturday.
Video from inside the deli appeared to show the two women get into a shouting match before moving outside, where their fight escalates and another video angle captures fists flying on the crowded sidewalk in front of the store.
Punches are thrown and a wig is ripped off, but the violence doesn't end when the two separate. One of the women, who police believe to be Phoenix, climbs into a black Honda Accord parked along the sidewalk and backs the car a few feet, allegedly in an effort to jump the curb and hit the other woman, NYPD officials said.
Instead, the woman slams into 59-year-old Milton Storch, who had been sitting on his walker outside the doors of the deli. He was thrown to the ground and his walker was heavily damaged. He was pronounced dead at St. John's Hospital. Another 37-year-old man had also been taken to the hospital for minor injuries to his back.
Neighbors said Storch was a steady presence in the neighborhood and looked out for others.
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"He was really nice, very respectful man, and it's sad that he had to lose his life like that," one said.
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Phoenix initially took off in the car before abandoning it and fleeing on foot, police said. She turned herself into police in Far Rockaway on Monday. It was not clear what the fight that Phoenix and the woman were involved in was about.
Attorney information for Phoenix, of Queens, was not immediately available.
