Cops Shrug Off Witnesses to Fatal Vespa/SUV Crash
Aileen McKay-Dalton
Despite three witnesses who say that the driver of an SUV blew through a red light and killed a Vespa-driving Fort Greene mother of three, the NYPD decided that there was no criminality involved in the accident. And one of the witnesses says the cop on the scene could not have cared less about what she observed at the intersection of Clinton and DeKalb Avenue, where Aileen McKay-Dalton, 40, lost her life.
"The officer told me, 'You can stay or you can go, I don't really care,'" witness Tara Simoncic tells the Brooklyn Paper. Simoncic stayed, and the officer eventually took her statement, but in the end there were no charges filed against the unidentified driver, who may be a member of a federal law enforcement agency. Witnesses say the driver, a 29-year-old Louisiana man, wore a gun holster and that the car was registered to the Treasury Department. But according to the accident report, it was registered to Metro Property Appraisers, a Manhattan firm that does not show up in phone or business listings.
Fort Greene Council Member Letitia James continues to demand an investigation into the accident, and tonight at 5:30 p.m. she'll hold a vigil at the intersection to press for a probe. "The NYPD must investigate the circumstances of this incident, and communicate openly with the victim's family, my office, and the community at large," James says. A native of Scotland, McKay-Dalton leaves an 8-year-old daughter, two sons ages 3 and 6, and a husband, Michael Dalton, who met his future wife while the pair was still in high school in Scotland, the Brooklyn Paper reports.