Detectives nab hit-and-run driver in 2022 New Year’s Eve killing: NYPD

A New Jersey driver has been arrested for a New Year’s Eve hit-and-run in the Bronx two years ago, officials said Thursday.

Algenis Chavez, 43, was charged with leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death for fatally striking 62-year-old Edwin Rivera near Broadway and W. 238th St. in Kingsbridge on Dec. 31, 2022, cops said.

Rivera was crossing the street when Chavez’s white Dodge Ram rammed into him, cops said.

A witness to the crash pulled Rivera out of the street and onto the sidewalk and EMS rushed him to NewYork-Presbyterian Allen Hospital, but he couldn’t be saved.

Rivera, relatives said, survived two other encounters with hit-and-run drivers in the past.

“After the first [hit-and-run] he had some dementia and he was blind in one eye and deaf in one ear,” his sister Carmen Rivera, 59, told the Daily News after his death. “All three were hit-and-runs. I’m almost used to this.”

Rivera previously lived in East Harlem with his sister, but moved up to the Bronx, where he was staying at an assisted-living facility close to where he was killed.

After moving to the Bronx facility, Rivera loyally made his way to his sister’s apartment to share a meal with her every day, she said.

“He came to visit me every day,” she added. “I’m all he had. My soul has been taken.”

After an exhaustive search, members of the NYPD Collision Investigation Squad managed to collect surveillance footage in the area that showed the license plate of the Ram truck in the hit-and-run. They then used the license plate to track down Chavez.

Chavez lives in Elmwood Park, NJ, about 17 miles from where the crash occurred. It was not immediately clear why it took nearly two years to arrest the suspect. He was released without bail following a brief arraignment in Bronx Criminal Court Wednesday.

“It’s terrible the way he died,” Rivera’s sister said after his death. “They left him in the street. I want justice. I want justice for my brother.”