Family of Brooklyn man killed by hit-and-run driver demands justice

Nicholas Williams, Thomas Tracy, New York Daily News
·2 min read
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The family of a 57-year-old Brooklyn man killed by a hit-and-run driver as he stepped out of his SUV is demanding cops ramp up their search for the heartless motorist who ended their loved one’s life.

“They need to find who killed my brother. Find out who killed him and take him in,” Thechelet Babin’s grief-stricken sister, who wouldn’t give her name, told the Daily News Wednesday. “Whoever killed him, they need to find him.”

Babin had just parked his Infiniti FX 35 SUV on Wortman Ave. west of Georgia Ave. in East New York just before 6 a.m. Friday when he was mowed down, police said.

He died at the scene. When cops arrived, he was lying next to the SUV, its driver’s side door still open, officials said.

The driver who hit Babin never stopped and was last seen heading east on Wortman Ave. toward the nearby Belt Parkway.

Babin lived in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, about four miles from where he was killed. Funeral services for Babin will be held on April 26 at the Harmony Funeral Home in Flatbush.

News of Babin’s death left his family stunned and clamoring for answers, his sister said.

“We are going through a lot right now with this,” she said. “Our family is grieving right now, we can’t believe this happened.”

Babin’s death came two days after police announced upgraded criminal charges for another Brooklyn hit-and-run driver who was arrested six months after fatally striking a woman in Crown Heights.

Driver Clossie Spencer was looking for a parking spot near Pacific St. and Buffalo Ave. on Aug. 14, 2022 when he backed into Mimi Silver Liebenberg, who was crossing Pacific St. in the crosswalk

Surveillance footage recovered from the nearby Kingsborough Houses show Spencer getting out of the car, looking at the seriously injured woman and getting back in before he drove off.

Liebenberg suffered severe and permanent brain damage in the crash and underwent three consecutive brain surgeries before she died in December at age 38.

Cops caught up to Spencer in February 2023 and initially charged him with assault, reckless driving and leaving the scene of an accident involving an injury. In light of Liebenberg’s death, police rearrested Spencer, 31, and charged him with manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, reckless endangerment and failure to exercise due care.

Cops investigating Babin’s death have scoured the area around the crash, looking for surveillance footage that will help them identify the hit-and-run driver.

Babin’s sister said traffic cameras will be instrumental in getting her family justice.

“[The police] know what they have to do,” she said. “There’s cameras over there, find the guy who killed my brother.

“If they find the guy, we will be happy,” she said.