A reckless driver who killed a 9-year-old boy while wreaking havoc on Brooklyn’s streets Saturday has been charged with criminally negligent homicide, authorities said.
Anthony Byrd, 59, was headed west on DeKalb Avenue in Fort Greene in his Ford Expedition at around 1 p.m. when he started to turn onto Clermont Avenue and saw two pedestrians in the crosswalk, cops said.
Byrd swerved to avoid them and slammed his SUV into a parked Ford Taurus, police said. The SUV then ran up on the sidewalk and struck a building and a Cadillac Escalade, cops said.
The panicked Byrd then accelerated, hung a U-turn and headed the wrong way down DeKalb — at which point, he struck a parked Chrysler Pacifica and again hopped a curb, cops said.
That’s when Byrd slammed into Lucian Merryweather, 9, crushing the child beneath the massive SUV as the boy’s horrified mom looked on, cops said.
Lucian was pronounced dead at the scene.
His 5-year-old brother also was struck, and is listed in stable condition at Kings County Hospital.
The tragic youngster’s mother was grazed by the vehicle, but was otherwise unhurt, cops said. Another woman, 28, also was struck and suffered a leg injury.
Byrd was arrested and slapped with a slew of charges, including criminally negligent homicide, assault, reckless endangerment and reckless driving, cops said.
He had been arrested in 2010 for allegedly engaging in a criminal sex act with an 11-year-old child, sources said.