A woman is in custody and being questioned about a March 27 road accident in Brooklyn, involving a Dodge Challenger that sent a pedestrian flying more than 9 feet across the street.
Julia Litmonovich, 49, of Staten Island is accused of driving the American muscle car that collided with Xin Yi Wang, 14, at the intersection of 47 Street and 9th Avenue in Borough Park.
“This is kind of a little shock,” neighbor Vincent Capri, 56, said after watching the arrest.
The New York Police Department (NYPD) claims the suspect ran a red light on 47 Street at about 4 p.m. local time on March 27. The Challenger with Georgia license plates is believed to have crashed into Wang while she was making her way along the crosswalk.
NYPD initially described the suspect as a white female, between 35 and 40 years old, 5 feet 6 inches, 160 pounds, medium-heavy set with brown hair.
Police said the woman’s record sheet of arrests and prosecutions shows she was already arrested 30 times, including once for leaving the scene of an accident where she rear-ended another car on Hylan Boulevard in Staten Island back in the year 2007.
At the time, the woman allegedly phoned the other driver to ask her to take the blame for the accident, threatening that she had two pit bulls “for safety.” In the end, Litmonovich plead guilty to leaving the scene of an accident and received a one-year probation, according to the Staten Island district attorney’s office.
In the latest accident, Wang was fortunate enough to be able to avoid oncoming traffic and even stood up afterwards. Wang said that suspect exited the car to hug her in relief and even offer her a ride home, but she refused.
“I thought to myself, if she was able to hurt me this much and do something that dangerous what else would she do?“ Wang said. ”So I said no and got out of there. It’s why I got up so fast, I was scared. It was an extremely bad experience.”
The driver returned to her vehicle and told a bystander who was calling the police that she was going to park the car, but she sped off before officers arrived on the scene.
After the incident, Wang said she now fears crossing the street, experiences challenges in concentrating on her studies, and still suffers from severe bruising to her hip.
“At first I thought, ‘Oh my God, did I do something wrong? Did I cross at the wrong time?’ I was so shocked,“ she said, according to the Daily News. ”But then I realized she’s the one who did something wrong.”
