LOWER EAST SIDE — A Brooklyn man who struck and killed a homeless man as he crossed the Bowery in November was charged with manslaughter Tuesday.
Danny Lin, 24, who was driving over twice the 25 mph speed limit in his 2011 BMW, mowed down Robert Perry, 57, near Rivington Street about 7 p.m. on Nov. 24, according to the Manhattan District Attorney's office.
Lin was charged with with manslaughter in the second degree; a class C felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
Perry, a homeless man who aspired to be a race relations and homelessness activist, was tossed more than 140 feet away on impact. He was taken to Lower Manhattan Hospital where he died an hour later, according to police.
Lin told police he tried to stop after hitting Perry and lost control of his car, swerving onto the sidewalk and crashing into a fire hydrant on Stanton Street.
"Miraculously, no one else was hurt when the car he was driving crashed into a hydrant on a sidewalk filled with other pedestrians," Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance said. "City streets are no place for this kind of reckless driving and dangerous speed.”
Perry was struck near The Bowery Mission, a homeless shelter where he stayed regularly.
The 57-year-old man grew up without parents and had been homeless since the age of 12, he told Storied.TV who interviewed him days before he was killed.
"Just reach out and help the homeless," he said. "Because homeless people need y'all and y'all need us. Because you can learn a lot from us."
