The hit-and-run driver sought for killing a handicapped man as he sat on a Queens sidewalk has been apprehended and charged with murder.
The 26-year-old suspect, named as Kiani Phoenix on Monday, fatally hit Milton Storch, 59, with her Honda Accord in Rockaway on Saturday, triggering a two-day search when she left the scene.
Footage of the incident, which left Storch dead and another man with minor back injuries, shows Phoenix driving the four-door car onto the sidewalk where Storch was seated, and then accelerating abruptly.
The video, caught by a nearby security camera, shows the car abruptly lurching forward, prompting people to flee; however, Storch, who required a walker to move, was unable to escape in time and was struck.
Storch, who eventually died at a local hospital as a consequence of his injuries, was sitting outside the deli he frequented on Beach 20th St when he was hit; inhabitants of the mostly residential neighbourhood lamented his passing.
The event occurred shortly before 7:30 a.m. and was filmed in its entirety by one of the store’s exterior security cameras, assisting the police in successfully locating the woman.
Saturday, police reported that Storch was hit, although Phoenix was really going for another lady, with whom she had been feuding before to the tragic crash.
Phoenix, a regular at the deli, was arrested on Monday and is now charged with murder, attempted murder, assault, reckless endangerment, and unlawful possession of a firearm.
The skirmish, which was captured by video cameras both inside and outside the bodega in Queens where it began, depicts a battle of words that develops in seconds into a fistfight and ultimately the brutal murder of 59-year-old bystander Milton Storch.
Storch was sitting on his walker and enjoying the morning sun outside the Rohan Deli at 601 Beach 20 Street in Far Rockaway at 7 a.m. on Saturday when he was senselessly ploughed down during the street brawl.
The video shows that the argument began near the potato chip display rack in the front of the bodega, with another unidentified woman wearing sport shorts, a black tank top, and a bright red wig, pointing and yelling at the smaller Phoenix, who is wearing a yellow florescent onesie and leaning forward as she responds in kind.
The video has no sound and it is unclear what the ladies were talking over, but according to the police, the two women are acquainted and do not get along.
In the video, Phoenix attempts to escape but is prevented by the bigger woman. She grabs the bag and follows the lady out of the shop.
The footage resumes outside the corner store, with Storch sitting on his front porch while two ladies perform windmill punches while grabbing each other’s hair.
During the altercation, Phoenix seems to be attempting to enter her vehicle, but instead exchanges blows with the other lady.
The suspect ripped off her adversary’s wig as they fought in front of the black Honda, both throwing haymakers with lethal intent.
When Phoenix eventually enters her vehicle, the other lady, who looks to be the aggressor, comes around to the driver-side window and begins throwing punches through it.
Several males on the sidewalk unsuccessfully try to separate the ladies until Phoenix, the driver of the black sedan, starts the vehicle, reverses, and climbs the curb where her tormentor is standing.
As individuals on the walkway disperse and a lady drives down the sidewalk, Storch looks to be facing the other direction.
Just as he turns his head, he sees the automobile collide with him and squeeze him between the vehicle and the front of the bodega.
The woman then backs up, pulls back into the road, pauses at a stop sign and slowly drives away. She is currently being sought by police.
Storch was taken to St. John’s Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
‘There’s not much he could’ve done — couldn’t move fast,’ Tatiyana Temple, a neighbor told the Daily News. ‘I watched the video so many times today, and I’m just like, this is crazy.’
Another man who was also struck was taken to the same hospital, but he’s expected to recover.
Storch, who lived nearby, often hung out in the area and suffered from limited mobility due to a build-up of fat in his legs, his roommate, Jose Rodriguez, told the Daily News. He had to use the walker to get around.
‘I thought he was with his girlfriend or something, so I didn’t worry that much,’ Rodriguez told the paper. ‘When I found out what happened, then that’s when I stood frozen.’
Police have questioned the woman who was wearing the red wig and they believe they know who the suspect is, but she has not yet been located or arrested.
‘That fight is so drastic that you feel you had to mow people down?’ neighbor Marsha Green told the Daily News. ‘I hope they catch her. I hope!’
Prior to Phoenix’s arrest Monday, neighbors mourned the loss of Storch, a neighborhood fixture who frequented the delijust a few blocks away from his house to buy candy and his favorite Zebra Cakes.
One neighbor said she was shocked to hear about his death.
‘I cried because I couldn’t believe it when my husband told me,’ she told locas news station Pix11, adding, ‘That didn’t have to happen to a person who had nothing to do with a fight. To be innocently mowed down? I don’t know.’
Another neighbor, Tatiyana Temple, who lives near the deli, told The Daily News: ‘People are just crazy and evil – like, what in your mind tells you to get in your car and run someone over?’
Aside from claiming the life of Storch, the incident also saw a 36-year-old man hurt, sustaining injuries to his back, officials said. The intended target seen in the footage arguing with the suspect, meanwhile, was uninjured.
Phoenix’s arraignment in Queens Criminal Court was pending Monday night.