The worried family of an immigrant hospital cleaner were on their way to an NYPD stationhouse to report him missing when they came upon the scene where he was fatally struck by a Bronx driver.
Inza Fofana, 52, had just wrapped up his shift at Lincoln Hospital when he was struck midblock right about 3:15 p.m. Wednesday by a man driving a 2019 Ford Transit van.
“He was going to buy socks. That’s why he crossed the street,” the victim’s sister-in-law, Nanssirra Cisse, 34, told the Daily News. “And normally he just come from work and he will walk straight but that day he had to go buy socks. That’s what landed him on the other side of the street.”
The 48-year-old driver was making a left turn off E. 149th St. onto Morris Ave. when he struck Fofana, according to police.
The victim’s wife, Mabradje Cisse, was concerned when Fofana didn’t make it home to Harlem by 4 p.m. like usual. The family went to file a police report at an NYPD stationhouse close to the hospital, his last known whereabout, when they stumbled upon the crash scene.
Fofana was on the phone with a friend who told the family the two were talking about the cost of socks near Fofana’s job when the victim suddenly stopped speaking and the friend only heard background noise, the friend told the family.
Medics rushed Fofana back into Lincoln Hospital but he couldn’t be saved. Fofana immigrated to New York in his 30s from the West African country of Ivory Coast.
“He was fasting that day,” Diabate Mamadou, his brother-in-law, said of Fofana, who was Muslim. “Can you believe, the whole day, no eat, no food, no drink, no anything — and then this happened?”
“He was a very kind person,” he added. “Very very sweet person. Because we live together for so long, so we miss him a lot.”
The driver stayed at the scene and faced no immediate charges, according to police.
“We need to [have] safety in New York City because too many accidents,” Mamadou added. “People are losing their life.”
The family was told by police three drivers hit Fofana.
“He was crossing the street. One car hit him,” Nanssira Cisse said. “He landed on the other car. The other car hit him and there was a third car that was on him.”
“We need to have a safeguard over there. It’s a big intersection. It’s very busy,” she added. “There has to be a cross guard over there for the pedestrian to cross the street safely and for the loved one of everybody to get home with no problem, for something like Inza to never happen again.”
The family is struggling to come to grips with the loss.
“He spent his life very shy. He wasn’t a show-off person. Very gentle, very kind,” Nanssira Cisse said. ‘It’s very hard for us right now to just accept that he’s gone.”
