A Rosedale man has been charged with assault, driving without a license and other charges after he struck a 6-year-old boy as the child was exiting his school bus last year and then fled the scene in his vehicle, the district attorney’s office said.
“There is no place in the world that a person needs to rush to when one is confronted with a stopped school bus filled with young children,” District Attorney Richard Brown said. “In this case a precious few minutes could have prevented a young child from being seriously injured. The defendant now faces felony assault and other charges.”
The boy was walking off a stopped school bus at 227th Street and 119th Avenue in Cambria Heights on the afternoon of Dec. 3, 2014, when he was struck, according to Brown. The boy’s mother said she saw a Toyota Avalon go around the stopped school bus and hit her son on the right side of his body. The bus’ stop sign was out and its lights were flashing at the time.
Garfield A. Myrie, 47, the Toyota’s driver, then got out of his car, picked up the boy, scooped him up in his arms and said, “He looks OK but I can bring him to my doctor,” according to the district attorney. After the boy’s mother told him to put her son down, Myrie returned to his car and fled the scene without reporting the incident.
The child was taken to the hospital, where he was treated for a broken femur. The injury required surgical plates and screws.
According to the district attorney’s office, a review of New York State Department of Motor Vehicles records showed that “Myrie’s license to operate a motor vehicle was suspended on three or more occasions, the last date being Jan. 27, 2014.”
Myrie was arraigned on Friday in Queens Criminal Court on charges of assault, leaving the scene of an incident without reporting/serious injury, reckless endangerment, endangering the welfare of a child, reckless driving, aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle and obedience to and required traffic-control devices, prosecutors said. Myrie, who faces up to seven years in prison if convicted, was ordered held on $25,000 bail.
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