EAST FLATBUSH — Police have charged the man who stole an SUV and blew through a pair of red lights before getting into a violent crash Monday morning that left four people, including two young children, hospitalized.
Stephen Brumaire, 18, stood barefoot and stonefaced during his Brooklyn Criminal Court arraignment Tuesday afternoon. He was ordered held on $50,000 bail on assault and grand larceny charges in connection with the crash on Rutland Road and Remsen Avenue about 9:15 a.m., police said.
Brumaire was charged with stealing a grey Chevy Tahoe at about 7 a.m. Monday, and then running a red light at the intersection and slamming into a Nissan Pathfinder about two hours later. Both SUVs then careened in different directions onto the sidewalk, the NYPD said.
The stolen car slammed into a mother as she pushed her 2-year-old boy in a stroller. The Nissan Pathfinder narrowly missed a 10-month-old being pushed in a carriage by his babysitter across the street, police and prosecutors said.
“The car was flying up Remsen,” said witness Eric Wiseman, 52. “It had to be going 50. It jumped across the island. The car hit the woman dead on.”
Only the mother was seriously hurt. She was bleeding from the head and had a bone sticking out of her leg when police arrived on scene. She was taken to Kings County Hospital in critical condition and underwent surgery Tuesday night, police and prosecutors said.
The two children were also taken to KCH, but were treated for just minor injuries, the NYPD said.
The driver of the Nissan was taken to Brookdale Hospital and is in stable condition, according to authorities.
Brumaire wore gym shorts and a grey sweatshirt and said nothing during his arraignment on charges that also included criminal possession of stolen property, fleeing police and driving without a license.
Investigators later determined that he was involved in a burglary last month in which he and two others broke into a woman’s Canarsie home and stole an Xbox, iPad and other electronics.
He has seven other sealed arrests dating back to 2014, police said.
