DOWNTOWN — An East New York man has been sentenced for causing a fatal crash in Downtown Brooklyn after driving over 60 mph, running three red lights and slamming into another vehicle, killing a 21-year-old woman and injuring three others.
“This defendant made a series of reckless and deliberate decisions that had deadly consequences,” said Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, who announced the sentence. “By driving at high speeds and running red lights, he turned a Brooklyn intersection into a death trap. A young mother lost her life, shattering her family.”
Kashawn Croswell, 28, of East New York, was sentenced by Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Jane Tully to an indeterminate term of three to nine years in prison.
He was convicted on Jan. 22, 2026, of second-degree manslaughter, two counts of second-degree assault, reckless driving, excessive speed and disobeying traffic control signal indications.
According to the investigation, on Aug. 18, 2023, at approximately 3:21 a.m., Croswell was driving southbound on Court Street at a speed of 60 mph with his 24-year-old girlfriend in the passenger seat.
Video surveillance showed him running three consecutive steady red lights at Schermerhorn Street, State Street and Atlantic Avenue.
After running the third light at Court Street and Atlantic Avenue at a speed of 62 mph, Croswell T-boned a westbound vehicle that had the right of way, striking the front passenger side.
The front-seat passenger in the struck vehicle, 21-year-old Shanti Joyner, suffered multiple blunt impact injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Joyner’s 32-year-old sister, who was driving, suffered an ankle fracture. A 29-year-old rear passenger suffered a wrist fracture.
Following the crash, the defendant exited his vehicle and removed his girlfriend from the passenger side of the car, which eventually caught fire.
He then attempted to flee the scene, dragging his girlfriend for a block and a half, asking multiple cars if they were Uber drivers. He then asked a resident to allow the defendant to enter their home but was denied entry. Bystanders called 911, and police later located the defendant outside the building.
His girlfriend, who suffered a spinal fracture in the crash, was transported to an area hospital.
The DA thanked Intelligence Analyst Zoë Feygin of the KCDA Digital Evidence Lab under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Jingu Chong, chief of the Digital Evidence Lab, for assistance.
The case was prosecuted by Senior Assistant District Attorney Han Zhang and Assistant District Attorney Adriana Morquecho of the District Attorney’s Blue Zone Trial Bureau, under the supervision of Assistant Street Safety Bureau Chief District Attorney Jennifer Nocella and Blue Zone Bureau Chief Assistant District Attorney Kin Ng.