Oct. 23, 2024 By Bill Parry
An Astoria woman was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver who was trying to elude capture during a police chase that began in Dutch Kills on Tuesday night.
Police from the 114th Precinct were in pursuit of three suspects in a black Dodge Ram pickup truck that matched the description of a vehicle wanted in connection to a burglary in progress on Crescent Street near the Dutch Kills Playground.
Police attempted to conduct a car stop just before 11 p.m. when the driver of the pickup truck fled the location and was traveling at an apparent high rate of speed with the NYPD in pursuit eastbound on 34th Avenue through the intersection at 37th Street. where it slammed into a cyclist who was thrown off her bike into a parked and unoccupied BMW 328i, police said Wednesday. The pickup truck sped away from the scene.
EMS rushed the woman to Elmhurst Hospital, where she was pronounced dead a short while later. The victim was later identified as 36-year-old Amanda Servedio of 31st Avenue in Astoria, just two blocks north of the scene of the fatal collision.
Police recovered and secured the abandoned Dodge Ram pickup truck in front of 46-15 Newtown Road. The three masked suspects were last seen running from the truck, which had ghost plates and front-end damage, police said.
There are no arrests and the investigation remains ongoing.
Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at crimestoppers.nypdonline.org or on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter) @NYPDTips. All calls and messages are kept confidential.
Through Oct. 20, the 114th Precinct has reported 157 burglaries so far in 2024, 23 fewer than the 180 reported at the same point last year, a decline of 12.8%, according to the most recent CompStat report.