CROWN HEIGHTS — A Brooklyn man has been sentenced to up to seven years in prison for killing a pedestrian while fleeing police in Crown Heights last year, prosecutors said.
Driver Raymond Ramos, 19, of Crown Heights pled guilty last month to second degree manslaughter, Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson said, stemming from a crash that killed 21-year-old David Jones in March of 2015.
Officers had attempted to pull over Ramos on the corner of Sterling Place and Schenectady Avenue just before midnight on March 8, 2015 when the police smelled marijuana coming from the teen’s Volkswagen. As the officers turned on their lights to pull Ramos over, he hit the gas, running two red lights and eventually hitting another vehicle on St. Johns Place near Nostrand Avenue.
The impact of that crash hit and killed Jones, who was walking nearby, and injured three passengers inside Ramos’ car and the vehicle he struck.
Jones was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital soon after the crash. Ramos was arrested at the scene.
The 19-year-old was sentenced to between two and a half and seven years for the crime, the district attorney said Thursday.
“Instead of pulling over his car, this defendant foolishly decided to flee law enforcement and recklessly speed through red lights, which led to the death of an innocent young man,” said Thompson after the sentencing. “This tragedy was completely avoidable and the defendant will now spend years in prison, where, undoubtedly, he will think about that fact.”
Following the crash, St. Johns Place is one of several side streets in Crown Heights being considered by the Department of Transportation for traffic calming measures and bike lanes after the agency found drivers regularly speeding on the roads.
