Driver Charged, Cyclist Identified in Fatal Brooklyn Crash Gothamist
The unlicensed driver who killed an 18-year-old bike rider yesterday morning blew through a red light before crashing into the victim and dragging him over 50 yards, police say. The driver, 28-year-old Michael Oxley of Brooklyn, was charged with criminally negligent homicide amongst other charges, City Room reports . According to witnesses, the cyclist, Jake McDonaugh, was riding east on Beverly Road around 9:30 a.m. and entered the intersection at Flatbush Avenue as Oxley sped through the red light. "He got stuck under the van, and the van [dragged] him about half a block against the asphalt," witness Brian Lorde tells the Daily News . "It was awful. He never had a chance."McDonaugh, who lived on McDonald Avenue in Windsor Terrace, was pronounced dead at the scene. A devastated friend of his writes , "Jake was one of the most, if not the most, unique, talented and dedicated people I have ever known, and genuinely by no means an exaggeration of his character... I had the pleasure of working on several screen-printing jobs with Jake, in which he stood out to me even more so as an amazingly talented artist. He earned an honest living selling his art on the streets of SoHo and undeniably left an impact under the pseudonym, 'Drip.'"
