79-year-old woman killed in Brooklyn hit-and-run remembered by family as ‘fiercely independent’ mother, grandmother

The family of a 79-year-old woman fatally struck by a hit-and-run driver says they will not rest until they find justice for the mother and grandmother.

“She was murdered,” Verna McKnight’s grandson told the Daily News on Monday. “We need to find her killer.”

Verna McKnight

McKnight was getting out of her Toyota Camry on Church Ave. near E. 52nd St. in East Flatbush at around 7:20 p.m. Saturday to go grocery shopping nearby a beauty salon she owned, according to her grieving family.

As she stepped out of the car, a passing white Ford van driver struck her and she went “flying,” witnesses said.

The driver briefly stopped on E. 52nd St. before taking off, cops said.

“I’m so stressed, I’m so stressed,” witnesses recalled the woman muttering as she remained lucid in the street.

When medics arrived, they rushed McKnight to Brookdale University Hospital, but she could not be saved.

“Our family wants justice,” said her grandson Kareem McKnight. “At 80 years old, healthy, [she] got out her car, closed the door and got hit … thrown. He got out his car, looked at her body and drove away.

“My grandmother is a pretty hefty woman,” he added. “For her to get hit like that, it was pretty significant.”

McKnight was born in Jamaica and moved to the U.S. in 1980. She lived in Canarsie with her grandson.

She worked as a housekeeper at The Plaza hotel until she could save enough money to open her salon, Unisex Contemporary Beauty, around 1985.

The “fiercely independent” woman had five children, seven grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

“Our mom, she wasn’t the normal 80-year-old,” said her daughter Judith Donaldson, 61. “She’s just so fun, so encouraging, always a fighter. She was no ordinary mom. She was so much fun.”

McKnight’s husband and the father of her children died just a year after she brought her family to New York.

“She just picked up, and she was just everything to us,” said another daughter, Michelle McKnight. “She’s like royalty to us — our best friend, our confidant.”

“Everyone calls her ‘Mom,’ because she is just that warm and kind,” added her daughter Juliet Francis, 61. “She’s the mom to all her friends.”

McKnight was well known in the neighborhood where she had owned Unisex Contemporary Beauty for decades.

“She’s like a little queen when she comes,” said a woman who owns a clothing boutique next to her salon and only wanted to be identified as Mary. “Everybody knows her. She’s a well-respected lady.”

The woman said McKnight routinely parked directly outside her salon and was extremely aware of her surroundings.

“She’s very careful when she comes here,” said Mary. “One of the guys help her park the car. This is madness.”

A man who lives on the block said McKnight was a “fixture in the community.”

“She’s been here forever,” said Richard Grant, 55. “Watched children born and grow up.”

Police are still searching for the driver. They asked anyone who may have seen the person to come forward.

“Someone must have seen this driver; someone must have seen or caught his license plate,” Michelle McKnight said. “There has to be someone with information, the cameras that were there. We would just love to help in any way.

“Not only do we have to bury her, we have to investigate her [death].”

Content Source

Dallas Press News – Latest News:
Dallas Local News || Fort Worth Local News | Texas State News || Crime and Safety News || National news || Business News || Health News

texasstandard.news contributed to this report.

Related Articles

Back to top button