A man involved in a wild chain-reaction crash that killed a beloved high school football coach outside his Bronx home last year has been arrested for fleeing the chaotic scene, police said Thursday.
Cops arrested Orville Berry, 27, in the crash that took the life of 60-year-old Dwight Downer outside his home at Eastchester Road and Givian Ave. in Baychester just after 12:05 a.m. Nov. 30, police said.
Downer, a retired correction officer and high school football coach, had just parked his car on the street when a 24-year-old man behind the wheel of a BMW heading east on Eastchester Road crashed into a pickup truck going north on Givian Ave., the Daily News previously reported.
The impact sent the BMW careening toward a parked Acura MDX and a 2007 Nissan Murano. Also in the path of the crash was Downer, who was standing next to the Nissan.
As Downer lay mortally injured in the street, the BMW crashed into two more cars parked on the street before coming to a stop. The 24-year-old driver stayed on the scene, but the pickup truck driver, identified as Berry, kept on going, cops said.
Medics rushed Downer to Jacobi Medical Center, but he could not be saved. The BMW driver was taken to the same hospital to be treated for minor injuries.
Police arrested Berry, who lives in Yonkers, on Thursday and charged him with leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death and aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle.
Downer, a father of two, served as a correction officer at Rikers Island for 27 years before retiring nearly a decade ago, his family told The News after the tragic crash. Since then, he had coached football at DeWitt Clinton High School, where he was affectionately known as “Coach D.”
“He loved life,” Downer’s sister Karen Green said. “Every Super Bowl he would cook. He had a large circle of friends. People loved him.”
Berry’s arraignment in Bronx Criminal Court was pending Thursday night.
