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BMW Driver Charged in Fatal Harlem Hit-and-Run

By DNAinfo Staff on July 22, 2011 7:20am  | Updated on July 22, 2011 3:09pm

By Della Hasselle and Tom Liddy

DNAinfo Staff

HARLEM — A man was killed Thursday night when a motorist driving a BMW slammed into him in Harlem and then fled the scene, plowing into other cars before she crashed to a halt, police sources said.

The victim, Robert Bond, 53, suffered serious head injuries in the crash just blocks from his home and died Friday morning after being rushed to Harlem Hospital.

"Bobby was the kind of person that everybody loved," his distraught wife Deborah, 52, said. "He would give everybody anything they needed.

"I'm devastated right now."

Sources said that Bond was crossing Seventh Avenue between 118th and 119th Streets around 11:15 p.m. when Simone Walters, of East Harlem, allegedly plowed into him with a 2000 BMW 328i.

After that, Walters took off, tearing down Seventh Avenue and turning onto 110th Street, where she crashed into a Mitsubishi Outlander near Fifth Avenue, sources said.

The 44-year-old suspect then drove east through Harlem before crashing her car again at East 104th street and Madison Avenue, according to the NYPD.

The impact of the crash with the 1999 GMC Suburban tore off her front wheel and dislodged the axle, police said.

She was also taken to Harlem hospital with minor injuries, officials said.

Walters was charged with leaving the scene of an accident, DUI and driving with a suspended license, police said.

Sources said that the charges might be upgraded because the victim died.

The victim's wife said that he had just left his home before the crash when he was struck.

"He had left and said he would be right back," Deborah Bond said. The next thing she knew, people were banging on her door, giving her news about the crash.

Doctors tried to revive the father of four several times, but were unable. 

"By the time I got up there, the doctor told me he died," said Bond's wife of 11 years.

"[The driver] took away a good man, a good father and a a good husband."