A hit-and-run BMW driver who killed two men crossing a street, including an 80-year-old Chinese immigrant, had downed a couple beers the night of the crash and hit the victims so hard their blood and “body matter” were strewn over the car’s mangled front end, prosecutors said Saturday.
BMW driver Juventino Anastacio Florentino, 23, left several parts of his car behind following the 4:22 a.m. Friday crash in Sunset Park. Those parts, as well as license plate readers in the area, helped cops track Florentino to his Staten Island home.
He said nothing at court as Brooklyn Criminal Court Judge Elizabeth Warin ordered him held on $100,000 bail. The Staten Island resident is facing manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide, among other charges. It’s his first arrest.
Florentino was grabbed Friday afternoon, more than seven hours after the crash, officials said. When he was taken into custody, cops smelled alcohol on his breath, prosecutors said. He was immediately given a breathalyzer test and had a blood alcohol content of 0.06% — under the legal limit, prosecutors said.
During questioning, he admitted to buying a six-pack of Modelos — a Mexican beer — on the night of the crash.
“I had a six pack of Modelos and two drinks,” he admitted, prosecutors said. “I was driving the car by myself last night. It’s my fault. After I hit them, I came home.”
Obtained by Daily News
Surveillance video shows two men crossing Third Ave. at 52nd St. in Sunset Park early Friday, July 11, 2025, moments before they were fatally struck by a car in a hit and run crash. (Obtained by Daily News)
Florentino said he didn’t drink after coming home.
During his arraignment, Florentino’s attorney, Robert Maranelli, noted that his client isn’t facing drunk-driving charges. Cops were still backtracking Florentino’s movements on the night of the crash to see if they could find evidence of him leaving a bar or appearing intoxicated before getting behind the wheel, a police source with knowledge of the case told the Daily News.
The victims, 59-year-old Faqiu Lin and 80-year-old Kex Un Chen, were crossing the southbound side of Third Ave. at 52nd St. under the elevated Gowanus Expressway when Florentino’s BMW plowed into them.
The two men were both knocked high into the air and landed feet away from each other, surveillance video recovered by the News shows.
Gregory, a horrified business owner who was arriving at work in Sunset Park when the battered BMW sped past him, said he was stunned by the carnage the BMW left behind.
“I go around the block and I saw [the bodies],” he said Friday. “One was on the sidewalk, and one was by the bus stop. One was facing up and one was faced down. The [one] facing up, I see his face was opened.”
Chen moved to the United States in 2016, his heartbroken son Qin Xiao Chen, 46, told the News.
“In China, he was a vegetable farmer,” his son said. “We don’t know where he was going at that hour. He was very independent and true to his word. He wanted to earn things on his own.”
Chen’s son said he didn’t know Lin.
Both men had empty shopping carts, and Chen walked with the assistance of a cane, video recovered by The News shows. Several people ahead of them crossed the avenue against the light without any problem.
The two victims first crossed the avenue against the light, but the light went green as they reached the middle of the street. A moment later, Florentino speeds through them, prosecutors said.
“(He) is alleged to have driven his vehicle at a high rate of speed through a steady red light,” prosecutors said at Florentino’s arraignment. “The victims had the right of way. (His) vehicle was ID’d through parts of the vehicle that were left at the location.”
Florentino’s car was recorded going over the Verrazano Bridge into Staten Island a short time after the crash, cops said. Investigators tracked the car all the way to the BMW driver’s home in West Brighton.
His battered and blood-soaked luxury car was sitting in the driveway, cops said.
“(The car had) front-end damage consistent with a collision with pedestrians and with apparent body matter about the front end,” the criminal complaint reads.
In addition to the manslaughter and criminally negligent charges, police charged Florentino with leaving the scene of an incident without reporting, reckless endangerment, reckless driving, disobeying traffic signals and driving at an excessive speed.
Gregory estimated that Florentino was going more than 70 miles per hour at the time of the crash.
“He fly, like not even hit the brakes,” he said, adding that the driver must have seen the first group of people crossing the wide and well-lit three-lane avenue. “If you’re a driver and you see eight people cross in front of you, and you see more people are crossing, you have to slow down.”
Transportation advocates said that since 2018, 80 people have been killed or seriously injured on the same stretch of Third Ave. The city is planning to put safety upgrades on the stretch, but the project has been delayed to 2026, Transportation Alternatives Executive Director Ben Furnas said.
“These two deaths are as horrifying as they were preventable, and it’s especially gutting when two New Yorkers are killed on a street that the community and City Hall both know is dangerous,” Furney charged. “Sunset Park has demanded better, but the City has stalled time and time again, and now the Adams administration’s antagonism toward commonsense safety improvements has killed two men.”
An email to the city’s Department of Transportation about the Third Ave. project was not immediately returned.
As of last Monday, 56 people have been fatally struck by vehicles in the city in 2025, compared with 68 by this time last year, officials said.
