Hit-And-Run Driver Kills 4-Year-Old On Dangerous Brooklyn Corridor

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct errors tied to inaccurate and confusing information provided by the NYPD press office.

A hit-and-run driver of a Ford SUV killed a 4-year-old boy on Thursday morning at a notoriously dangerous street in Brooklyn, police said.

The driver of the large white Ford was traveling “northbound on Linden Boulevard” at around 11:10 a.m. when he struck the child, who was “running” on Rockaway Parkway, police said — an account that contradicted itself, but NYPD declined to clarify. In fact, the driver struck the boy in the mid-block crosswalk on Rockaway Parkway north of Linden Boulevard, Department of Transportation spokesman Vincent Barone said.

The driver fled, and the boy, who police later identified as Zachariah Padilla, was taken to Brookdale Hospital, where he died, according to cops.

Police offered no additional information, but preliminary coverage was filled with victim-blaming that excused the driver’s behavior.

The Post, citing “law enforcement sources,” alleged that the boy “dashed away from his mom.” The Daily News, which echoed The Post’s victim-blaming framing, said the boy “was running across the parkway heading east when he was hit,” citing eyewitness accounts.

The latter paper’s account also attempted to excuse the killer driver, citing cops who said “it wasn’t immediately clear” if the motorist knew they had struck someone.

“He was lying there, bleeding all around. He was slumped on the ground,” one witness told the News. “His mother grabbed him and lifted him up. She was screaming.”

The intersection of Linden Boulevard and Rockaway Parkway — just south of the site of the crash — is designed for danger. Since January 2022, there have been 368 reported crashes in just a three-block radius of the intersection, injuring 215 people, including 29 pedestrians, 11 cyclists and 175 people inside cars, according to city stats mapped by Crash Count.

The specific block where the collision occurred was the site of 36 reported crashes in 2025, injuring two pedestrians and 10 motorists. Since January 2022, there have been 145 reported crashes injuring 88 people total, including 75 people inside cars, evidence of great speed.

Rockaway Parkway is a DOT-designated “Vision Zero” corridor, meaning the agency has cited it as one of the more dangerous streets in Brooklyn. An automated enforcement camera at the intersection of Linden Boulevard and Rockaway Parkway caught nearly 10 speeding drivers per day in 2025, according to Transportation Alternatives.

The group called on DOT to use its authority under “Sammy’s Law” to reduce the speed limit on the strip.

“We must build a New York City that’s safe for children — and that means finally implementing Sammy’s Law to ensure drivers are moving at a safe 20 mph,” Transportation Alternatives Executive Director Ben Furnas said in a statement.

With Max White and David Meyer