An accused hit-and-run driver cops say intentionally mowed down a pregnant woman for confronting her over a Brooklyn fender-bender has been nabbed three weeks later and charged with murder, police said Wednesday.
Chaquasia Pigford was charged Wednesday with killing 32-year-old Tiffany Cifuni, who was on her way home from a Beyoncé concert at MetLife Stadium when she got into a minor crash with the suspect in Bedford-Stuyvesant last month.
Pigford, 28, vehemently denied the charges as she was escorted out of the 81st Precinct stationhouse in handcuffs to appear in Brooklyn Criminal Court.
“That wasn’t me!” said Pigford, sporting a blue hoodie, black leggings and sneakers. “It was the person that owned the car!”
Cifuni was driving east on Van Buren St. when she was hit from behind by a 2016 Chevy Trax near Marcus Garvey Blvd. about 11:55 p.m. May 24, cops said. She drove after the Chevy and got out of her 2021 Toyota 4Runner to confront the driver, in an exchange caught on video.
“Where are you going?” Cifuni shouts in video obtained by ABC7 New York. “Get out!”
“You trying to drive away? Get out!” she repeatedly yells, as banging sounds can be heard off-screen. “Get out right now. Park your car and get out!… You don’t f—ing drive away … Park your car, you just hit me!”
Traffic lines up behind them, and a yell and a bang can be heard as the Chevy pulls out, running over Cifuni and dragging her down the street as she screams out.
Pigford allegedly dragged Cifuni about 160 feet along Marcus Garvey Blvd. and then turned left onto Lafayette Ave., going the wrong-way down the one-way street before crashing into a parked SUV and a Jeep Grand Cherokee driven by a 38-year-old woman. Cifuin then abandoned the Chevy and ran off, according to cops.
Pigford lives just a few blocks away from the crash.
Medics took Cifuni to Kings County Hospital with severe head and torso injuries and she died there about half an hour later.
A grand jury went on to indict Pigford on murder charges. Pigford had briefly fled to South Carolina but was captured by police earlier this week when they learned she had returned to New York, officials said.
She was freed without bail after she was charged with attacking her ex-girlfriend in April, according to law enforcement sources. She was hit with misdemeanor assault and other charges after she allegedly punched the woman in the face on April 27, then locked herself in her apartment for about 20 minutes to avoid arrest, according to a criminal complaint.
Cifuni’s devastated husband, James Cifuni, confirmed the victim was pregnant in an interview with the Daily News in May.
“Tiffany was literally was the center of our world,” he said. “She made me a better person, a better man.”
He declined comment Wednesday when asked about Pigford’s arrest.
Cifuni married her husband in 2022 and recently moved to Long Island, her father-in-law told ABC7 New York in May.
Pigford was awaiting arraignment in Brooklyn Supreme Court Wednesday on a slew of charges including murder, manslaughter, leaving the scene of a fatal crash, unauthorized use of a vehicle, reckless driving and driving the wrong way on a one-way street.
With Thomas Tracy
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