YONKERS, N.Y. (PIX11) — An unlicensed teen driver is accused of killing a police sergeant in a multi-vehicle crash in Yonkers last year, authorities said Tuesday.
After an 11-month investigation, the teen was indicted on a charge of criminally negligent homicide on Friday, authorities said. He turned himself in and was arraigned Monday in the Youth Part of Westchester County Court.
The boy, then 16, was driving a BMW when he crashed into a Westchester County Bee-Line bus and an unmarked patrol car on the Sprain Brook Parkway overpass on Tuckahoe Road around 3:35 p.m. on Dec. 1, 2022, authorities said.
Sgt. Frank Gualdino, 53, a 24-year veteran of the Yonkers Police Department, was driving the department vehicle and died of his injuries at the hospital, police said. Gualdino was just months from retirement.
The teen was critically injured in the wreck. Some of the 30 passengers on the bus sustained minor injuries.
At the time of the crash, the teen did not have a driver’s license and only had his permit for three weeks, police said.
“To say that this situation has been painful and difficult from day one through today is an understatement, although this is the first step towards closure for all involved,” Yonkers Police Commissioner Christopher Sapienza said.
Mira Wassef is a digital reporter who has covered news and sports in the New York City area for more than a decade. She joined PIX11 News in 2022. See more of her work here.
