Tow truck driver delivers fatal punch (NY)

[TowNews]

Tow truck driver delivers fatal punch in Brooklyn parking spot dispute: NYPD

 

A parking dispute between two men in Brooklyn turned deadly Saturday when police said one of the men took a swing at the other.

 

The fatal strike happened on Clarkson Avenue in East Flatbush after a 30-year-old tow truck driver arrived around 8:45 p.m. to remove a car parked illegally, according to police.

 

Police said the owner of the car, a 61-year-old man, tried to stop the tow. At one point the driver allegedly started banging on the side of the truck to stop the tow.

 

The altercation became physical, with the tow truck driver delivering a punch that knocked the older man to the ground, police said.

 

Medics transported the 61-year-old man to Brookdale Hospital but his injuries proved fatal. His identity has not been released by authorities.

 

Police said the tow truck driver was taken into custody. No criminal charges were immediately announced.

 

RESOURCE LINK

[TowNews]

 

 

 

[TowForce]

 

EAST FLATBUSH, Brooklyn (WABC) -- A parking dispute at a Brooklyn gas station turned deadly when a man tried to stop his car from getting towed, police said.

Police identified the tow truck driver as 30-year-old Kevon Johnson who is now charged with assault.

They say he pulled a punch that would claim the life of 61-year-old Carlyle Thomas.

It all sparked from a parking dispute at a Clarkson Avenue gas station on Saturday night.

Surveillance video captured the victim as he tried to stop the flatbed truck driver from towing his minivan from the gas station.

 

Thomas opened the driver's side door and just moments later, turned around and saw the tow truck driver who would punch him so hard, that police say he fell and hit his head on the concrete pavement.

There was a heavy police presence following the incident, as this investigation got underway.

Thomas lived just next door. Family members say he had an arrangement with the owner of the gas station, allowing him to park there for just $10 if he couldn't find parking.

Thomas' fiancée, Andrea Gooden, says the owner had Thomas' number and could have called him if he needed to move the car, but for some reason called a tow truck, and that is when the deadly argument unfolded right in front of the gas pumps.

Gooden says she blames the gas station owner just as much as the tow truck driver for the death of the man she loved.

 

"He said, 'I was mad with him, so I called the tow truck.' So you're mad with him and he loses his life?" Gooden said.,

She says she spoke with the owner and doesn't understand why he couldn't have made a simple phone call to have him move the car or pay up.

"He could have called him. He had his number. He could have called me because he called him at 2:00 in the morning to come downstairs and help his workers when someone was breaking into his stores. And he'd never tell him no," Gooden adds.

Shell Station worker Imran Aziz said he thought management made a mistake.

"He was a family member in here. I'll be honest. Whenever somebody tried to steal something in here, he was the kind of guy who'd grab stuff and bring it back to me. Like I remember my own experiences with him," Aziz said. "Before calling the tow guy, they should have called him. 'Did you pay? No? Are you coming to pay?'"

 

Somebody did call Thomas, but after the tow truck had arrived. His daughter says the blame lies squarely with the driver who pulled the punch.

Sunday, many loved ones gathered to light candles as they reeled from this tragedy.

The 61-year-old was a horse racing jockey in his younger days in Jamaica, who later worked at the Aqueduct Race Track with horses.

RESOURCE LINK

[goodmichael]

Tragic. Over a hunkok of metal and plastic.

[TowForce]

Tow truck driver, 30, released on legal loophole after deadly, one-punch attack on NYC man, 61

 

Kevon M. Johnson, 30, allegedly delivered a single punch that sent Carlyle Thomas, 61, barreling into the pavement where he fatally struck his head during an argument that broke out over a $10 parking spot at a Brownsville Shell gas station Saturday, authorities said.

 

He was granted supervised released at his arraignment Monday on a charge of third-degree assault, prosecutors said.

 

“The law allows only for charges relating to the punch and there is no way to prove intent to cause his death or any other serious injury,” a law enforcement source told The Post, explaining the low-level charge that the so-called “one-punch homicide” offense calls for. 

 

Further working in Johnson’s favor, the misdemeanor charge hasn’t been bail-eligible since the statewide bail reforms enacted in 2020, the source said.

 

A friend of Thomas previously told The Post that the victim lived right next door to the station on Clarkson Avenue and sometimes parked temporarily in the Shell’s parking spots.

 

On Saturday evening at around 8:45 p.m., someone called Thomas to warn him that the gas station manager had called a tow truck to impound his car, the friend said.

 

“He came running. He open the door of the tow truck and the guy punch him in the head! He go down and bam!,” the tipster said.

 

“Dead. He die right there in front of pump 6! He never touch the guy, only touch his door and the guy come out and punch him.

 

“He’s a cool guy. Got a young son. Why they do that to him! One punch? Kill him?!”

 

Thomas, a former horse jockey who worked at Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens, has a son, daughter and step-children, his loved ones said.

 

His step-daughters told The Post the gas station would charge people in the neighborhood $10 to park overnight if they couldn’t find a spot on the street — but that Thomas had a relationship with the shop and sometimes wouldn’t pay until after he got his car.

 

“He’s lived here a long time and has a relationship with them, so he didn’t pay right away,” his step-daughter Andrele Peter’s said, adding that once he found out his car was being towed, he went down to investigate. 

 

“He’s verbally arguing with the tow truck guy and from what I hear next the guy hits him so hard he fell to the floor and his heart stopped. That hit was so hard to the floor he died here. He didn’t make it to the hospital and the hospital is three minutes away.” 

 

“He always tried to help them out any way he could. And he did pay to park! But sometimes, you know, I mean they’re friends, so sometimes he paid after when he came back,” she said. 

 

“Why he got to die over $10? He’s short, he’s shorter than my sister here. He’s a little man, you got to punch him like that? You got to kill him over $10?!”

 

RESOURCE LINK

[TowZone]

I somehow doubt the loophole will stand up in court. A Cause and Effect.

 

Causation refers to the relationship of cause and effect between one event or action and the result.

 

The Law of Cause and Effect is a fundamental principle that states that every action has a corresponding consequence.