‘She was as sweet as they came’
Daughter of woman killed by driver in Boerum Hill mourns loss of mother
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
The daughter of a Alina
Morales, the 62-year-old
woman killed by a driver on
Atlantic Avenue in Boerum
Hill last week, is spending the
holidays mourning the loss of
her mother, who she said was
a caring and kind woman.
“She was as sweet as they
came,” said Alina Cardi, who
shares her late mom’s fi rst
name. “She had her nickname
‘Sugar’ — she didn’t get that
nickname for nothing.”
Morales was struck and
killed on Atlantic Avenue between
Third Avenue and Nevins
Street on the evening of
Nov. 22, when Jasen Nhambiu
allegedly hit her while driving
without a license, and the victim’s
daughter said the death
came as a shock, just days
ahead of their plans to celebrate
Thanksgiving.
“Due to this man’s reckless
behavior she didn’t get to
spend Thanksgiving with her
grandchildren,” Cardi said.
Originally from the Bronx,
Morales moved to Kings
County about four years ago,
but regularly helped out her
four children and six grandchildren,
according to Cardi.
“She was a loving mom
and caring grandmother,” she
said. “With COVID and having
to take care of children,
you go to the person to help
COURIER L 4 IFE, DECEMBER 4-10, 2020
with childcare but that person
is no longer there.”
Nhambiu, who works as
a lawyer for a hospital in the
Bronx, avoided felony charges
after registering below the
drunk driving limit in a preliminary
fi eld breath test, but still
faces traffi c offenses equivalent
to misdemeanors, according to
a complaint fi led by the Brooklyn
District Attorney Eric Gonzalez’s
offi ce on Nov. 24.
He allegedly smelled of
booze and slurred his speech,
according to cops on the scene,
but refused to submit to a more
sophisticated breathalyzer after
police took him to the local
precinct.
He was also driving without
a license and with his two sons
in the car, according to authorities,
and Cardi told Brooklyn
Paper she believes he got off too
lightly.
“I don’t feel like it’s fair that
they’re trying to let him get
a slap on the wrist,” she said.
“Charges like that basically say
it’s ok to take a life like that and
it’s a misdemeanor. You altered
not only my life but several of
our lives.”
To cover their mother’s funeral
expenses, Cardi and her
siblings have launched an online
fundraiser, which has already
garnered more than
$2,500 out of a goal of $8,000 as
of Monday evening.
“We have a long way to go
for us to heal and process,” she
said. “We’re looking to give her
a proper funeral so she can fi -
nally be laid to rest.”
Alina Morales, who was killed in Boerum Hill on Nov. 22, with her granddaughter Mia. The Morales family
BY ROSE ADAMS
Nearly two dozen protesters
took to the Bushwick streets on
Nov. 29 to demand that police
investigate a hit-and-run that
seriously injured a local mom.
“Justice! Justice!” the protesters
chanted.
Andrea Cardeno, a Mexican
immigrant living in Fort
Greene, has spent 11 days in
Elmhust Hospital after a car hit
her and seriously injured her
foot on Nov. 19 on Myrtle Avenue
by Greene Avenue in Bushwick.
Cardeno’s husband, Heribierto
Rubio, said that the couple
drove to Bushwick for their
child’s doctor’s appointment
when they stopped to buy some
bread for their other kids at
about 12:40 pm.
After Rubio went into the
bakery, a car hit the family’s vehicle
from behind, Rubio said.
Cardeno got out of the car to
investigate the damage, but as
she was walking to speak to
the driver, another driver hit
her and ran over her foot before
speeding away.
Cardeno was transported
to Elmhurst Hospital, where
doctors found she had suffered
multiple fractures to her
foot. The 37-year-old hadn’t
left the hospital as of Dec. 1,
and had undergone two surgeries,
which included placing
screws in her ankle. Doctors
said Cardeno, a mother of
three, won’t recover the use of
her foot for about a year, her
husband added.
The couple has demanded
that police investigate the hitand
run, claiming that offi cers
with the 83rd Precinct have
been mostly passive since they
fi led the police report.
“The offi cials don’t want to
investigate. We’ve gone many
times,” Rubio said in Spanish.
The police’s original accident
report neglects to mention
key facts about the incident,
Rubio alleged. A picture of the
report said that Cardeno “was
observed on the ground being
attended by FDNY EMS upon
police arrival and did claim leg
injuries” — which Rubio and
activists argue places the blame
on Cardeno without noting that
the driver ran over her foot.
“There are no facts or details
that it was a hit-and-run,”
said Jorge Muñiz-Reyes, an activist
who organized the event
with the advocacy group Mexicanos
Unidos. “It makes it
sound like she had fallen.”
When Rubio asked the precinct
to correct the report, offi
cials told him that he had to
speak to the offi cer who fi led it,
but he later was told that offi -
cer is on vacation.
“The police don’t want to do
anything,” he said, noting that
Andrea Cardero, center, suffered a severe foot injury after a driver hit
her in Bushwick on Nov. 19. Jorge Muñiz-Reyes
offi cers haven’t reached out to
his wife to ask her what happened.
“The offi cers haven’t
gone to the hospital to clarify it
with her.”
Muñiz-Reyes added that the
couple has struggled to fi nd an
offi cer to translate from English
to Spanish for them, most
likely accounting for some of
the report’s errors.
Local organizers tried to
track down information about
the driver, obtaining security
camera footage from the
Wyckoff Pediatric Care Center
across the street that revealed
the model of the driver’s car.
Rubio, who attended the
Nov. 29 protest that marched
from Myrtle Avenue to the 83rd
Precinct, said he suspects that
his and his wife’s immigrant
status has played a role in the
police’s alleged inaction.
“Because we’re immigrants,
they don’t want to help us,” he
told Brooklyn Paper.
The local police precinct is
still investigating the hit-andrun,
according to an NYPD
spokeswoman.
Activists demand justice for
mom hurt in B’wick hit-and-run