South Brooklyn Hit-and-Run Kills 29-Year-Old Teacher, Police Say

MIDWOOD, BROOKLYN — A 29-year-old teacher was fatally struck by two cars Tuesday morning while she tried to cross a Midwood intersection, police said.

Hermanda Booker, a Flatlands resident, was crossing Nostrand Avenue where it intersects Kings Highway at about 6:45 a.m. when she was first struck by a white SUV, and then a school bus, police said. The SUV fled the scene, but the school bus remained, according to the NYPD.

Booker suffered trauma to her upper torso, police said, and was taken to Beth Israel Hospital, where she died.

No arrests had been made as of early Tuesday evening, and an investigation into the hit-and-run was ongoing, according to the NYPD.

Booker taught English at a school in Ridgewood, Queens, the New York Post reported — a job she just started in September. According to her LinkedIn page, Booker was part of the Department of Education's Teaching Fellow program, and was working toward a Master's Degree in Women's Studies at the University of Albany.

“She was one of the best kids you can ever have,” Booker's father, Herman, told the Post. He said the driver of the SUV “needs to come and give himself up. You need to own up to this.”

According to data compiled as part of the city's Vision Zero program (and accessible on the Vision Zero View map), 23 pedestrians have been injured at the intersection of Kings Highway and Nostrand Avenue between 2010 and 2016. However, Booker is the first pedestrian to have died at the intersection during that time period.

Pictured at top: Hermanda Booker. Image via LinkedIn