Skip to Content
Streetsblog New York City home
Streetsblog New York City home
Log In
Carnage

Unlicensed Driver Pleads Guilty in Brooklyn Hit-and-Run Death

NYPD has a get-out-of-jail-free card for drivers of large trucks who strike and kill people. Image: News 12

A motorist who killed a man in Brooklyn has pled guilty to leaving the scene and driving without a valid license.

Brian Young struck 28-year-old Francis Perez as Perez crossed Avenue V in Sheepshead Bay on the night of September 23, 2016.

Perez
Perez
Perez

Perez had just walked out of a store with snacks for his 8-year-old son when Young rammed him with a Toyota SUV and kept driving.

“The guy flew in the air, and then the [driver]… stopped at that corner and just drove off,” a witness told the Daily News.

Prosecutors charged Young, then 47, with leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death and third degree aggravated unlicensed operation. The Brooklyn district attorney’s office declined to charge Young for the act of killing Perez.

Under state law the penalty for hit-and-run can be less severe than the penalty for a drunk driver who injures or kills someone and remains at the scene, a statutory flaw Albany legislators have for years failed to fix.

Leaving the scene of a fatal crash is a class D felony with penalties ranging from probation to seven years in prison. Third degree aggravated unlicensed operation is a low-level misdemeanor. Young pled guilty to both charges Wednesday, according to court records.

Young is scheduled to be sentenced in May.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog New York City

Speaker Adams and DOT Are Eviscerating Daylighting Bill

Some are looking to the next mayor and Council to pass the life-saving measure.

November 21, 2025

Memo to Mamdani: Fifth Ave. Belongs to the People — Not the Ultra-Wealthy and Gridlock

Mayor-elect Mamdani should revive DOT's plan to transform Fifth Avenue — which Bill de Blasio and Eric Adams shelved at the behest of powerful business interests.

November 21, 2025

‘Dirty and Embarrassing’: Jim McGreevey Fights Street Safety in Jersey City Mayoral Run

All eyes are on the Garden State's second city, where a former governor plots a comeback with a divisive, anti-safety campaign.

November 21, 2025

Cutting Federal Transit Funding Won’t Close Budget Gaps — But Will Make Transportation Less Affordable

The Trump administration's proposal to eliminate the mass transit account of the Highway Trust Fund would be short-sighted, ineffective, and ruinous, a new analysis finds.

November 21, 2025

Friday Video: A New Urbanist Heard From

Joel Katuala is "pissed off" about the criminal crackdown on cyclists.

November 21, 2025

Friday’s Headlines: Chi-Town Edition

Things are tense between Zohran Mamdani and Chi Ossé. Plus some other news.

November 21, 2025
See all posts