Brooklyn man arrested in fatal crash with pedestrian, 95, who survived Nazis, Chernobyl

Police have arrested a man they say struck and killed a beloved 95-year-old Brooklyn woman with a cargo van as she crossed the street near her home in January, according to the NYPD.

Thimothe Andre, 64, was taken into custody Thursday morning in the same south Brooklyn precinct where he allegedly collided with Mayya Gil and her home health aide, police said. He was charged with two counts of failure to yield in a motor vehicle and failure to exercise due care. Officials said he lived a few blocks from the intersection where the crash happened.

Gil had survived the Nazi occupation of Ukraine, the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster and the COVID-19 pandemic, her family previously told Gothamist. Police said she was crossing Cropsey Avenue near 24th Avenue with her 54-year-old home health aide one afternoon last January, just down the street from her apartment building, when Andre hit them while making a turn.

Gil was pronounced dead at a local hospital, and her aide was hospitalized in stable condition. Officials said Andre stayed at the collision site and was not initially charged.

Information for his lawyer was not immediately available early Friday.

Family and friends remembered Gil as an active member of her local Jewish community who had seven great-grandchildren. She moved to New York City from Ukraine in 1992, following her twin daughters, according to a 2020 New York Times article. Gil lost her longtime husband, who she originally met in Kyiv, to COVID-19 in the first weeks of the pandemic.

NYPD data shows 100 people have died in city traffic crashes so far this year as of July 13, down from 137 by the same point in 2024. Pedestrians made up about half of the deaths in both years.

This is a developing story based on information from police and may be updated.