A Madison Square Garden cook was mowed down and killed in Brooklyn early yesterday by an allegedly drunk driver who was nabbed by cops after smashing his car into a baseball fence.
Cops identified the victim as Karin Eberts-Ayub, 53. She was found laying face down on a sidewalk outside the left field of Kings Bay baseball field at the corner of Bragg Street and Shore Parkway in Gerritsen Beach at around 2 a.m.
She was struck by a 2012 Ford Fusion that jumped the curb.
The woman, who was divorced with no kids, was a talented painter and a devoted food prep cook who worked for several years at MSG.
Eberts-Ayub’s aunt, who said she looked after her niece like her own daughter from the age of 16, told The Post she just received the tragic news and was trying to get answers while her son was at the city morgue identifying the body.
“We just got off the phone,” Jacquelyn Eberts said between heavy breaths and tears in a phone interview from her upstate home.
“We need to get more information and gather our thoughts.”
She said Eberts-Ayub “loved working in the kitchen” and was planning her time as the offseason neared.
“I spoke to her last week and she said they were working on the stadium and she would have some time off.”
The woman who lived less than ten minutes away in Gravesend also was “very artistic” and loved to paint, her aunt said.
The crash roused Shirley Joseph from her sleep.
Joseph said the collision sounded “like a big explosion” and when she peered out the window she saw the middle-aged woman motionless.
“They just put the sheet over [her],” Joseph said, a move emergency workers made after being unable to resuscitate her.
“This person was just laying there the whole time face down,” she said.
“I just saw her laying still and I was praying she’d be okay.
According to police reports, Eberts-Ayub was pronounced at the scene.
Sources said the boozed-up man behind the wheel of his Ford car faces pending DWI charges after he was taken into custody.
Compounding the pain was how Eberts-Ayub’s aunt came to the city just weeks before to attend the funeral of her brother-in-law who passed away after suffering from an illness.
Jacquelyn Eberts said that his death was expected.
“That’s a normal way for people to die.”
But the sudden reality of her niece’s death is something else entirely.
“This isn’t normal. This is terrible.”
Additional reporter by Rebecca Harshbarger