{"id":10051,"date":"2025-10-20T22:40:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T22:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/10051\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T22:40:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T22:40:07","slug":"tragic-new-accounts-of-july-4-horror-that-killed-four-in-nyc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/10051\/","title":{"rendered":"Tragic new accounts of July 4 horror that killed four in NYC"},"content":{"rendered":"

A stricken mom testified Monday<\/a> how she found her daughter\u2019s battered body under an alleged drunken driver\u2019s truck in a horrific July 4 crash in Manhattan \u2014 and watched the life ebb from her child.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw her \u2014 Emily,\u201d Liliana Ruiz said, referring to daughter Emily Ruiz, 31, who was among four people killed by accused boozed-up motorist Daniel Christopher Hyden.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer eyes were wide open, like saucers,\u201d the mother said. \u201cI\u2019m just looking at her. I\u2019m tapping her face, telling her, \u2018Everything\u2019s gonna be OK. Emily, don\u2019t close your eyes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI see her lips turning purple, her eyes are going shut, and she\u2019s trying not to close them,\u201d Ruiz said. \u201cBut at one point, they completely closed. <\/p>\n

Daniel Christopher Hyden, 44, is charged in the July 4 drunken-driving crash that killed four people in Manhattan. Steven Hirsch\/NY Post<\/p>\n

Police said Hyden had a blood-alcohol level of .17, more than twice the legal limit, when he crashed into the celebration. William Farrington<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I\u2019m thinking, \u2018I just watched my daughter die.\u2019 \u201c<\/p>\n

Liliana herself only survived the July 4, 2024, vehicular onslaught because she had gone to the bathroom.<\/p>\n

Her daughter\u2019s 7-year-old son, Kai-El, would later heartbreakingly bring his toy first-aid kit to the hospital \u2014 where his mother lay brain-dead \u2014 to try \u201cto help the doctors\u201d treating his mom, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n

Liliana described how she eventually made the painful decision to take her daughter off life support.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy daughter was brain-dead, so I had to make the choice,\u201d she testified.<\/p>\n

Assistant District Attorney Matthew Bogdanos responded,\u00a0\u201cAnd what choice did you make?\u201d<\/p>\n

Emily Ruiz, 31, was left brain-dead, and her bewildered son, Kai-El, 7, would later bring his toy first-aid kit to the hospital to try to help her. Courtesy of Liliana Ruiz<\/p>\n

The shattered mom replied, \u201cTo let her go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her heart-wrenching account of the tragedy occurred on the first day of trial in the wreck that also killed Herman Pinkney, 38, his aunt, 59-year-old Lucille Pinkney, and Ana Morel, 43.<\/p>\n

Seven others were injured as Hyden allegedly slammed his Ford F-150 into Corlears Hook Park, where the neighborhood was celebrating Independence Day on the night of July 4.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors said Hyden, 44, kept his foot on the gas after striking 11 people \u2014 with the bodies under the SUV the only thing<\/a> stopping him from continuing to drive.<\/p>\n

Relatives of the victims console each other after the horror. William Farrington<\/p>\n

Prosecutors said Hyden had been barred from a local bar before the crash for being too drunk. Robert Miller<\/p>\n

\u201cMy adrenaline started to rush,\u201d survivor Hector Moreno, a friend of the Pinkneys, said at the non-jury trial. \u201cI stood on the bleachers, I saw the driver. He looked disoriented.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe still had his foot on the gas,\u201d Moreno said. \u201cI just started hitting him as hard as I could, and I didn\u2019t stop until I couldn\u2019t even hit him anymore. The last thing I heard was, \u2018Help get Herman out from underneath the car!\u2019 \u201c<\/p>\n

Hyden, who was denied entrance to a local watering hole earlier for being too drunk, was roughed up by the crowd and arrested, with cops reporting his blood-alcohol level at .17, more than twice the legal limit.<\/p>\n

Morel\u2019s mom, Zolia Hernandez was in upstate New York at the time and would only learn of her daughter\u2019s violent death hours later, she testified before Supreme Court Judge April Newbauer.<\/p>\n

The driver was held for cops by an angry crowd. nypost<\/p>\n

Liana Lewis said she had to identify the bodies of both her sister and nephew. Robert Miller<\/p>\n

Lucille Pinkney\u2019s sister, Liliana Lewis, had to identify both her sibling\u2019s and her nephew\u2019s bodies at the hospital.<\/p>\n

\u201cI see my nephew all bloodied up,\u201d Lewis testified. \u201cI saw him myself. He was dead. Then I went to the next room to see my sister. She was dead.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hyden\u2019s lawyer, Theodore Herlich, said during open statements that his client had suffered a foot injury during a fight at the club earlier in the night and suggested that may have contributed to the deadly crash.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was limping,\u201d Herlick told the judge. \u201cHe had injured his right foot that he uses to drive a car. I will note that at one half second before the crash the driver simultaneously had one foot \u2026 on the accelerator at 100% and another foot on the brake, causing it to decelerate from 52 mph to 48.1 mph.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A stricken mom testified Monday how she found her daughter\u2019s battered body under an alleged drunken driver\u2019s truck…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10052,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[254,8077,4327,57,238,9,56,63,65,64,4721,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-10051","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-car-crashes","9":"tag-drunk-driving","10":"tag-manhattan-supreme-court","11":"tag-metro","12":"tag-murders","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-ny","15":"tag-nyc","16":"tag-nyc-headlines","17":"tag-nyc-news","18":"tag-trials","19":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10051\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}