A Long Island police officer will not face charges for an off-duty car crash that killed an elderly pedestrian, authorities announced Tuesday.
Timothy Vitiello, a Nassau County cop, struck 85-year-old Teresa Gucciardo with his pickup truck in a parking lot in Commack on Nov. 28, 2022. Gucciardo died nearly a month later from her injuries.
The New York Attorney General’s office investigated the incident and the initial analysis by local authorities and concluded no charges were warranted against Vitiello.
Investigators did not find “reason to believe that Officer Vitiello was speeding or otherwise driving recklessly, or intoxicated, and for that reason concludes that a prosecutor would not be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Officer Vitiello committed a crime,” the attorney general’s office wrote in its report.
Vitiello was turning left in a shopping center parking lot when he struck Gucciardo, according to police. Vitiello told investigators he didn’t see Gucciardo before making the turn. Cops said he immediately stopped, dialed 911 and stayed at the scene.
Gucciardo fought numerous complications during a four-week hospital stay before she died on Dec. 22, 2022, authorities said.
Though Vitiello will not face criminal charges, Gucciardo’s family filed a civil lawsuit against him in July 2023, according to online court records. That civil case is still pending.
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