{"id":355679,"date":"2026-09-24T13:28:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T13:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/355679\/"},"modified":"2026-09-24T13:28:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T13:28:10","slug":"bronx-man-70-killed-on-way-to-work-by-wrong-way-hit-run-driver-was-doorman-about-to-retire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/355679\/","title":{"rendered":"Bronx man, 70, killed on way to work by wrong-way hit-run driver was doorman about to retire"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 70-year-old Bronx man fatally struck<\/a> by a wrong-way hit-and-run driver<\/a> was a doorman on his way to work looking forward to retiring soon.<\/p>\n

Ismael Rodriguez was crossing Morris Park Ave. near E. Tremont Ave. in West Farms when he was hit by a passing vehicle just before 6 a.m. Monday, cops said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was crossing E. Tremont to get the bus to work,\u201d said the victim\u2019s ex-girlfriend\u2019s sister, Kristina Quezada. \u201cHe was a very hard-working man. He was about to retire. He was really looking forward to it \u2014 but he never got to enjoy it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The driver, who was traveling against traffic in the southbound lane, never stopped and drove off following the crash, police said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not like they hit an animal or something,\u201d said Quezada. \u201cHe was a human being. They could have stopped and helped. No one deserves to go out that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rodriguez died at the scene. The driver has not been caught.<\/p>\n

The victim\u2019s family were told that the vehicle that hit Rodriguez was a white Lamborghini but the NYPD said they don\u2019t have a description of the car involved.<\/p>\n

\"IsmaelIsmael Rodriguez. (Obtained by Daily News)<\/p>\n

Quezada\u2019s mother said she received a call from Rodriguez\u2019s phone the morning he was killed and that she heard a woman\u2019s voice say, \u201cShe doesn\u2019t speak Spanish,\u201d before the call suddenly ended.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis phone was never recovered,\u201d Quezada said. \u201cWhy would they keep his phone?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"IsmaelIsmael Rodriguez. (Obtained by Daily News)<\/p>\n

Rodriguez worked at a building in Fort Lee, N.J., where Grammy Award-winning Cuban-American singer Celia Cruz lived before she died in 2003.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was adorable,\u201d said Quezada\u2019s mother, 57-year-old Lydia Rios. \u201cIsmael was always funny. What a great sense of humor. He loved music and sports.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI really hope they find them,\u201d she said of the hit-and-run driver. \u201cNobody deserves to die like that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 70-year-old Bronx man fatally struck by a wrong-way hit-and-run driver was a doorman on his way to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355680,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[128,262,263,266,85,267,75,84,83,9,24,264,12,63,261,265],"class_list":["post-355679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-bronx","tag-city","tag-county","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-county","tag-news","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-crime","tag-sub-county-region"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355679","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=355679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}