CANARSIE — An 81-year-old man was killed after being hit by two cars as he crossed a street near his home.
Police are hunting the driver of the second car which fled the scene.
Luis Ruiz, of East 94th Street, was crossing Rockaway Parkway at Avenue J, in Canarsie, at 8:57 p.m. Friday when he was hit by a Mitsubishi Montero in the northbound lane.
A dark colored sedan then hit him again. That driver then drove away, police said.
The driver of the Mitsubishi stayed on the scene and is not suspected of any criminality, police said.
The second vehicle had not been located as of Saturday morning.
His daughter-in-law, Rosemary Ruiz, said he was a widower who had three children, six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
She said he had left home to get a sandwich went he was hit at the intersection.
"We're just trying to absorb all of this," she said. "We're all in shock"
She said she hadn't told hr four-year-old son yet. The boy considered his grandfather "his best friend," she said.
Neighbors remembered Ruiz as a fiercely independent man who walked with a cane.
"He took care of himself," said Bertram Lewis, 78, who lived next door.
"Very independent, very strong-headed. He was a no nonsense kind of a guy."
"How can somebody hit an old man and keep going?" asked Ruiz's neighbor Rebecca Beach, 61.
"What's wrong with the world today? It's so sad."
