Fatal Crash Near Mega-Shelter Raises Safety Concerns

A 34-year-old man was killed in a fatal hit-and-run Friday night, November 13, at approximately 11:30 PM, at the intersection of Albany Avenue and Winthrop Street in South Crown Heights on the border of East Flatbush.

According to police, the victim was lying in the roadway before he was struck by a dark-colored SUV. The driver fled the scene without stopping.

The victim suffered severe head trauma and was pronounced dead at the scene. Chesed Shel Emes was not needed.

According to Anash residents of East Flatbush who live in the immediate area, the intersection of Albany Avenue and Winthrop Street is a known hotbed for homeless individuals experiencing mental breakdowns and violent psychiatric episodes to frequent lay in middle of the street, sometimes without proper clothing.

Within less than one hundred feet of that intersection, there are 5 different Homeless Shelters for those recently released from prison; each drug shelter individually houses hundreds of schizophrenia and psychiatric patients. They are located at 681 Albany Ave, 690 Albany Ave, 594 Albany Ave, 738 Albany Ave, and the notorious CAMBA “Supportive Housing” facility at 560 Winthrop St.

Lubavitcher mothers who frequent Lefferts Park daily with their children claim that the recent surge in crime, harassment, loitering, and attempted violent incidents perpetrated by emotionally disturbed persons (EDP’s) in Lefferts Park is mostly committed by the drug addicts who reside in one of the five homeless shelters at that Albany Avenue intersection.

The location of the pedestrian struck is also just one block away from the massive ‘mini city’’ construction complex at 681 Clarkson Avenue, which, when completed, will be America’s largest MEGA Homeless Drug Shelter for MiCA (mentally ill chemically addicted) for thousands of individuals.

Residents fear that the Mega shelter, along with nearly three dozen other drug and mental home “facilities,” including supportive housing and transitional housing for ex-cons and foster youth centers for recently incarcerated juveniles, along with homeless shelters surrounding it on all four sides, will turn a large portion of East Flatbush into an open-air drug and mental asylum for unrepairable individuals.

Residents of East Flatbush allege that since the Mega shelter began construction several months ago, interest in new homeownership from members of anash has sadly plummeted by approximately 50%, and unfortunately several Lubavitchers are even considering moving away from Crown Heights due to “uninhabitable every-day quality of life crime conditions” on the local East Flatbush streets. Anash in East Flatbush are calling on all Crown Heights and mainstream Jewish Askonim to do what they can to save the community.

No arrests have been reported, and the crash investigation remains ongoing.