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Vigil for Woman Killed in Fort Greene Crash Scheduled for Tuesday

By Alexandra Leon | December 17, 2015 9:26am | Updated on December 17, 2015 3:19pm
 A memorial for Victoria Nicodemus grows outside of Habana Outpost in Fort Greene.
A memorial for Victoria Nicodemus grows outside of Habana Outpost in Fort Greene.
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DNAinfo/Alexandra Leon

FORT GREENE — Family members, friends and community leaders will hold a vigil Tuesday for a Brooklyn Heights art curator on the street corner where she was fatally hit by a car earlier this month.

The vigil for 30-year-old Victoria Nicodemus will take place at 6:30 p.m. on the northeast corner of Fulton Street and South Portland Avenue, outside neighborhood restaurant Habana Outpost.

The vigil is being planned by Councilwoman Laurie Cumbo’s office, nonprofit group Transportation Alternatives, and Indiewalls, the Manhattan-based art marketplace where Nicodemus worked.

Indiewalls is working with artist Mark Samsonovich on a public art installation for the vigil called "Safe City" which they say will bring attention to the pedestrian dangers at the intersection where Nicodemus was killed. Samsonovich will include a sidewalk installation that incorporates one of the last images Nicodemus said she loved. 

“Life at Indiewalls has drastically changed without her, but we continue broadening the conversation around avoidable pedestrian fatalities and public art in her honor,” said Indiewalls spokesperson Kirsten Nicholas in an email statement.

Nicodemus' brother Hank Miller said the family will be at the vigil and he hopes to work with lawmakers in pushing for tougher penalties for drivers involved in pedestrian deaths.

“It’s a little disconcerting,” Miller said. “Right now they’re treating this like a traffic case.”

Nicodemus was in Fort Greene doing some holiday shopping with her boyfriend on Dec. 6 when the couple and another woman were hit from behind by a driver whose car jumped onto the sidewalk.

The driver, 39-year-old Marlon Sewell, was headed east on Fulton Street at 5:26 p.m. when he swerved right to avoid another vehicle and his car hopped onto the curb near South Portland Avenue, according to the NYPD.

Nicodemus was taken to Brooklyn Hospital Center, where she was later pronounced dead. Her 37-year-old boyfriend and the 75-year-old woman survived the crash.

Sewell, who had previously been arrested for driving without a license and had received several traffic citations for speeding, was arrested and charged with driving without a license or insurance, police said. He was released without bail and is due back in court on Jan. 11.