Driver Charged In Fatal Hit-And-Run Of Queens Boy: NYPD

WOODSIDE, QUEENS -- An 86-year-old driver was arrested for the hit-and-run that killed a 9-year-old boy as he was crossing the street with his mother just steps away from their Queens home, police said.

Little Giovanni Ampuero, of Woodside, suffered severe trauma to his head and body after driver Juan Jimenez crashed into him and his mother at the intersection near 70 Street and Northern Boulevard and sped away, Patch previously reported. Medics rushed the little boy to Elmhurst General Hospital, where he died.

Jimenez, who lives on Manhattan's Upper West Side, was making a left turn onto Northern Boulevard in his red Jeep Compass when he crashed into the nine-year-old boy and his mother at the intersection, cops said.

The driver tried to flee the scene, but another motorist who witnessed the crash tailed him several blocks and eventually stopped him at 60th Street, where cops arrested him.

Jimenez was charged with leaving the scene of an accident, failure to yield to a pedestrian and failure to exercise due care.

(Lead image: The intersection at Northern Boulevard and 70th Street where 9-year-old Giovanni Ampuero was killed in a hit-and-run. Photo via Google Maps)