Police have finally charged the hit-and-run driver they say ran killed a delivery cyclist in Brooklyn last year.
Late last week, cops said they had arrested Jonathan Cuesta, 32, of Clifton, N.J., and charged him with failure to yield to bicyclist MD Rajon and failure to exercise due care in the operation of his truck, which struck and killed Rajon in the early morning of Dec. 14 on Pitkin Avenue in East New York.
The charges carry a maximum punishment of mere days in prison.
@NYPDHighway Collision Investigation Sqd just arrested the driver that failed to exercise due care on 12/14/18 @ Pitkin Ave & Atkins Ave @NYPD75Pct wherein the driver struck and killed an E-Bike operator who had the right of way in a marked bike lane. Charged w/fail to yield. pic.twitter.com/h4gKZpxjHE
— NYPD Highway (@NYPDHighway) February 21, 2019
It is unclear what took the NYPD so long in making its case. Cuesta was actually arrested the day after the crash, though police did not release his name because he was not charged at the time.
Rajon, 21, had been in the United States from his native Bangladesh only one month when he was killed making a food delivery. His death was classified by the NYPD as a motor vehicle fatality, not a bicycle fatality because he was riding an electric bike.
