A callous hit-and-run driver was arrested after fatally mowing down a beloved grandmother of ten — who heroically saved her young grandson from the speeding demon — just steps from her home.
Brian McGurk, 40, was arrested after plowing into Clara Almazo, 56, in his black SUV in West Brighton at 9:50 p.m. yesterday, police said.
Almazo and her 8-year-old grandson were returning from church services and crossing Cary Avenue when McGurk barreled into them.
Witnesses said Almazo pushed the boy away from the SUV, and received the brunt of the impact.
Troy Goode, a local resident, heard the impact and rushed out to see if it was one of his children who had been struck. He said drivers often speed in the area.
“I saw the woman and told my son to call 911,” he said.
The boy suffered a broken leg and was still being treated at Richmond University Hospital.
“Everybody in the neighborhood loves my mom, she has such a great heart, “said her eldest son, Emilio Herrera, 29.
“She loves me so much. She loved all of us with her whole heart.”
Herrera said his mother devoted her life to her family and leaves behind ten children, and ten grandchildren.
“My father told me to take care of my mother and my sisters.”
“He told me, now I am the head of the family,” Herrera added. “My mother still has three little ones.”
Witnesses said the cowardly driver dragged Almazo for 20 feet before zooming off.
“The [SUV] threw her up into the air, from 10 to 20 feet. She went flying,” said Marcos Ramos, 37, whose home-security cameras recorded the tragedy.
“You can see very clearly the impact. A black SUV hits her and you see her belongings, like food, go up in the air. You can see that she pushes the boy out of the way.”
“He needs to pay for what he did,” said the victim’s brother, Odilon Almazo.
“I understand it was an accident, but had he stayed and called the ambulance perhaps my sister would be alive today.”
Almazo, a mother of six grown children who was born in Mexico and had lived in the United States for many years, died at Richmond University Hospital. The grieving family is asking the public for donations to help return Almazo’s body to her homeland.
McGurk was charged with leaving the scene of an accident, cops said.
Additional reporting by C.J. Sullivan and Kirstan Conley