The New York Attorney General’s Office of Special Investigations (OSI) has launched a probe into the death of a civilian on Saturday, Aug. 23, following a motor vehicle collision involving NYPD officers in Flushing Meadows Corona Park.
At approximately 4:37 p.m., an NYPD officer from the 110th Precinct in Elmhurst was driving westbound in a marked police cruiser, a 2015 Ford Taurus, at around 10 miles per hour in front of the Queens Theater on United Nations Avenue South, across from the Unisphere, when the vehicle ran over a man who was allegedly lying face up on the roadway prior to the collision, police said.
The officer remained on the scene, and EMS transported the victim to New York-Presbyterian Queens Hospital, where he was pronounced dead a short while later. The victim remains unidentified, an NYPD spokeswoman said Tuesday. She added that it still has not been determined why the man was lying in the roadway, and the investigation by the NYPD’s Highway District Collision Investigation Squad remains ongoing.
The USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows Corona Park is currently hosting the 2025 U.S. Open tennis tournament, and police said the cruiser was performing a routine patrol at the time of the fatal collision.
Pursuant to New York State Law Section 70-B, OSI assesses every incident reported to it where a police officer or a peace officer, including a corrections officer, may have caused the death of a person by an act or omission. Under the law, the officer may be on-duty or off-duty, and the decedent may be armed or unarmed. Also, the decedent may or may not be in custody or incarcerated. If OSI’s assessment indicates an officer may have caused the death, OSI proceeds to conduct a full investigation of the incident.
