UPDATE: Cops Say They Have Arrested Driver Who Killed Anastasia Diaz on Staten Island
Cops caught the driver who killed Anastasia Diaz by piecing together surveillance footage. File photo: NYPD
Updated | Police say they have arrested the driver who fled after running over and killing a Staten Island pedestrian — a collar that came hours after cops asked the public to help find the criminal.
Johnson Kim, 74, was arrested for killing of Anastasia Diaz, 89, late Saturday at the corner of Bradley and Purdy avenues in the Castleton Corners section of the Rock. Cops say Kim slammed into Diaz after she stepped off a city bus with her sisters, then kept on driving.
Kim was charged with the serious charge of leaving the scene of a crash and tampering with physical evidence — cops say he repaired his damaged Toyota Sienna, though police did not specify the extent of the damage.
Police spokesmen offered no details about how the NYPD determined that the Sienna was the murder vehicle beyond both saying it was "good police work." A timestamp from the video indicates that the car was caught on camera almost an hour before the 10:29 p.m. crash. Matching the video up to street view images on Google maps shows that the video was taken by a camera affixed to the side of Engine 163/Ladder 83 at the corner of Jewett and Crowell avenues.
That location is several blocks away from the crash site.
Arrests for leaving the scene of a crash are rare on Staten Island. In 2018, there were 168 hit-and-run crashes on Staten Island, resulting in just 16 arrests, police statistics show.
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