UPPER EAST SIDE — An elderly man was fatally struck by an SUV on the Upper East Side Tuesday night, officials said.
Richard Griffin, 85, was crossing York Avenue at East 69th Street at approximately 7:50 p.m. when he was hit by a gold Jeep Liberty SUV traveling north on York Avenue, the NYPD said.
Griffin, a Staten Island resident, was rushed to New York-Presbyterian Hospital in cardiac arrest and was pronounced dead at the hospital, police said.
Griffin was on his way to visit someone at the medical center when he was struck, the New York Post reported. According to the Staten Island Advance, Griffin is a resident of Emerson Hill.
Relatives on Wednesday said they were stunned by the way Griffin died.
"It's not the way you expect to see somebody go," said Griffin's daughter-in-law, Marcela.
The driver remained at the scene, and no criminality was suspected, police said.
Richard Griffin, a veteran, could remember events from decades past, Marcela fondly recalled.
"The memories he had, and telling stories about everything," she said. "He had all the details in his head."