By Della Hasselle and Heather Grossmann
DNAinfo Reporters/Producers
UPPER WEST SIDE — A Bronx motorist has been charged with mowing down a woman on an Upper West Side street and speeding off as her victim died.
Police accused Jessica Altruz, 24, of leaving the scene of an accident after her car struck a 67-year-old woman who was carrying groceries across West 93rd Street at Columbus Avenue at 4 p.m. Friday.
Margaret Fischer, of West 96th Street, died at the scene.
"She was very friendly, a very, very sweet person." said Wilfredo Robledo, 48, a doorman at her building who considered her his friend.
"I was in shock when the police came here yesterday and told me the news."
He said Fischer lived alone. She had two sons who live out of town, he said.
Altruz allegedly screamed that it was Fischer's fault when a good Samaritan forced her Dodge Charger to halt a block from the accident.
"It was my light! It was my light!" she hollered, according to witnesses.
West 93rd Street was closed to traffic late Friday. A pair of shoes, a brown jacket, a grocery bag and other personal items were strewn across the street.
"I saw her body lying down on the ground," said Liset Conez, 30, who works at Royale Cleaners, directly across from the site of the accident. "They drove away very fast."
A worker at a food cart across the street from the scene of the accident said she saw the woman thrown into the air by the impact of the car. A man who works at a nearby hardware store said he watched fire fighters try to resuscitate her. Neither witness wanted to be identified.
This death comes on the heels of a report by the Department of Health revealing that Manhattan has a higher pedestrian death rate per square mile than any other borough.
