Bushwick Parents Demand DOT Investigation After Daughter's Death

BUSHWICK, BROOKLYN — Juan Gonzalez wants the city to shut down a laundromat parking lot because, last Sunday, he never got to hear his only daughter wish him a happy birthday. On her way home, his four-year-old girl Luz Gonzalez was killed as a car backed out of the Bushwick lot and struck both Luz and her mother, who had knelt down to tie the girl's shoe.

"She was very beautiful and very sweet ... my only daughter" said Gonzalez through a translator. "I want to prevent another child from getting killed."

Gonzalez, his wife Reyna Candia, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams and dozens of protesters marched Wednesday evening to the Bushwick street corner where Luz was killed, called for a police investigation and demanded Governor Cuomo reconvene the State Senate to pass a speed camera program they failed to renew last week.

"This is a child we lost, merely for losing her shoe, she lost her life," said Adams in his plea that the senate expand a program that installs traffic cameras near New York City's schools. "The absence of speed cameras is a death trap."

Gonzalez, the ninth child killed by a driver in New York City this year, was struck on the corner of Wyckoff Avenue and Hart Street, just two blocks away from P.S. 123 Suydam, officials said.

She was hit by a 2018 Nissan Rogue outside the Clean City Laundry Center parking lot, by a driver who sped away after the crash and told police she didn't realize what had happened, according to police and reports.

News that the driver would likely not be charged spurred outrage in the community, and prompted the rally on Wednesday night.

"I want justice for my daughter's loss," said Candia, 39, through a translator, as she clutched a photo of Luz. "She was a very smart girl, she was very kind."

The family gathered outside the Hope Gardens public housing complex at Wilson Avenue and Menahan Street at 5 p.m., when representatives from Congresswoman Nadia Velasquez and City Councilman Antonio Reynoso offered condolences and demanded DOT investigate the street corner where Luz was killed.

Julio Salazar, a spokesman for Velasquez, echoed the Brooklyn Borough President's demand for speed cameras near schools, which Salazar argued might have prevented the deaths of countless other children like Luz.

"We've been on this corner too many times," he said.

Photo courtesy of GoogleMaps/Oct. 2016