By Ivan Pereira
A teenage father from Rosedale who was just about to start a new job was killed late Friday night following an accident in which another driver tried to overtake the car he was riding in, the police said.
Luis Forero, 34, of Jackson Heights, turned himself in to police early Saturday morning just hours after the accident at 225th Street and North Conduit Avenue and was charged by police with leaving the scene of a fatal accident and changing lanes in an unsafe manner.
Brian Hemmings, 19, of 231st Street, was in the back seat of his friend’s Dodge Charger when Forero allegedly struck the car with his SUV and fled as the Charger flipped over, according to investigators.
Hemmings was killed at the scene while the driver and other passenger suffered minor injuries, police said.
The teen’s family were not available to comment, but longtime neighbor and close family friend Marcelle Smith said they were devastated over the loss of their eldest son.
“He was such a good guy,” she recalled. “He never drank, never smoke and he was always playing with my son on the front step.”
Hemmings had just returned from the movies with his girlfriend, the mother of his 2-month-old daughter, and was on his way to another friend’s house at the time of the accident, according to Smith.
The teen, who graduated from Bayside High School, was supposed to begin working at a Wendy’s restaurant that day, she said.
Smith recalled how Hemmings would always hang out with trusted people and remained close to his friends. She said the driver of the car was so distraught because he did not get the brunt of the impact from the crash.
“He didn’t deserve this,” she said of the driver.
Police told Smith, who was with the family at the morgue, that Forero passed a Breathalyzer test when he arrived at the station, but the NYPD could not confirm or deny the allegation.
Along from his parents, stepmother child and girlfriend, Hemmings, who immigrated to Queens from Jamaica when he was a boy, left behind three younger sisters and a brother, according to Smith.
“His father is really doing bad now. He loved the boy so much,” she said.
Reach reporter Ivan Pereira by e-mail at ipereira@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4546.
