Nearly a year after a 75-year-old grandmother was struck and killed in a Sunset Park crosswalk, Brooklyn police have arrested the man accused of running her down and speeding away. Jose Rodriguez-Duran, 33, now faces charges including leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death and failure to obey a traffic device, with an arraignment pending in Brooklyn Criminal Court.
Judith Byron was killed near her own Brooklyn home, according to police, in a crash that unfolded close to Seventh Avenue, where she lived. Police say Rodriguez-Duran was driving north on Seventh Avenue on October 4, 2025 when he struck Byron near 41st Street, according to the New York Daily News. Cops said Byron had been crossing 41st Street with the walk signal when she was hit, and that Rodriguez-Duran drove through a steady red light before striking her.
The exact timing of the crash has varied slightly between accounts: the Daily News reported the collision occurred around 9:30 p.m., while PIX11 put it at around 9:35 p.m. Byron was rushed to Maimonides Medical Center, where she later died after being struck by the vehicle, cops said.
SUV Described as Silver Toyota Fled Northbound
According to CBS News, the SUV blew through a red light while Byron was in the crosswalk at Seventh and 41st Street in Sunset Park. Sources described the vehicle to the station as a silver Toyota that was last seen heading northbound on Seventh Avenue before vanishing into the night. CBS News described Byron as a beloved grandmother struck and killed by the SUV.
It took investigators almost exactly a year to make an arrest, according to police. The Daily News reports that Rodriguez-Duran was taken into custody roughly one year after the fatal collision, and that he now faces both the fatal leaving-the-scene charge and a charge for failing to obey a traffic device. His arraignment in Brooklyn Criminal Court was pending as of this week.
Hit-and-Run Fatalities Have Been a Citywide Concern
Byron's case is not the only recent Brooklyn hit-and-run to draw police attention. Earlier this month, a man was arrested in connection with a separate Brooklyn hit-and-run that killed a Lyft driver, with charges including manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, assault, leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death and reckless endangerment, per the Daily News. In another case, PIX11 reported that a 46-year-old man was killed after being struck by a vehicle in Brooklyn, with police saying that driver also fled the scene.
City officials have pointed to hit-and-runs as a persistent problem within the broader push to reduce traffic deaths. An earlier Vision Zero presentation posted by NYC.gov found that drivers fleeing crash scenes had nearly doubled compared with the 2018-2020 average, accounting for about a quarter of all traffic fatalities and nearly 40 percent of pedestrian deaths citywide. More recent city data cited by NYC.gov indicates pedestrian fatalities declined 21 percent in 2026 compared with the previous year, from 29 to 23 deaths, though an earlier NYC DOT summary had reported a 10 percent drop in pedestrian deaths the year before, from 89 to 80.
For Byron's family and neighbors in Sunset Park, those citywide figures offer little comfort. A year after she was killed steps from her own front door, the case now moves toward arraignment, with the charges against Rodriguez-Duran still pending before a judge.
