Family mourns 75-year-old aspiring poet, hit-and-run NYC victim as dump truck driver charged

The family of a beloved 75-year-old aspiring Russian poet mourned her hit-and-run death and called for justice Monday after a dump truck driver was charged in the incident Friday.

“For me, she was an angel, for me and my son,” Mikhail Gervolskiy, 75, said of his sister, Yelena Gervolskaya, who was struck and killed at the intersection of Shore Parkway and Shell Road in Brooklyn on Aug. 4, 2023.

“It’s very bad, it’s very bad,” the grieving brother said. “I remember her every day, every day. When I remember her, I cry.”

According to the NYPD, Gervolskaya was crossing the street shortly before 10:30 a.m. that day when she was hit by a 2017 Mack dump truck, with the driver then speeding off.

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A second vehicle — a 2021 black Jeep Grand Cherokee driven by a 40-year-old woman — then turned the corner and ran over the elderly victim, police said.

The Jeep also fled, leaving Gervolskaya dead or dying on the pavement.

She was pronounced dead at the scene.

“It’s very heartbreaking,” her nephew, Alex Gervolskiy, 49, I’m very, very sad that it happened and it’s a big, big tragedy for my family — for my father, for me.

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“She was a wonderful aunt, educator, did a lot of our family, our friends,” he added. “I’m hoping for justice.”

One of the dead woman’s chilling poems, translated by her family, talks about the rapid pace of life. 

“The world is changing with acceleration, we are changing sometimes,” the poem said. “Lines and opinions are changing, roads, desires. Maybe. Perhaps not.”

On Friday, Brooklyn cops broke the case and busted Frankie Rodriguez, 39, charging him with leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death and serious injury, and failing to show ID or a license, police said.

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“I’m very grateful for everyone involved in this process,” Alex Gervolskiy told The Post. “I guess it’s nice,” he said, now that someone has been held responsible:

“Ideally, if you do something like that, you don’t move, you stay on the scene. It’s illegal to leave the scene,” he said. “The investigation found he was in the wrong.”

But the dead woman’s brother said nothing will bring her back.

“I feel nothing,” Mikhail Gervolskiy said of Thompson’s arrest. “Of course, he must be punished because he has violated everything that could be violated. 

“He was a potential killer,” he added. “She is not going to come back.”