Lenora Campbell was 93 years old, a retired home health aide who lived less than four blocks from the corner where she died. On the afternoon of Monday, June 30, she was crossing E. 225th Street at White Plains Road in Wakefield when a hit-and-run motorcyclist slammed into her. Medics rushed her to Jacobi Medical Center, where she died. The rider fled and, according to police, has not been caught.
Her death was first reported by the New York Daily News, which spoke with Campbell’s family and with a witness at the scene. Police told the Daily News the motorcyclist struck Campbell around 2:30 p.m., that she was crossing in the crosswalk, and that the driver of the gray, red and white bike fled and has not been apprehended.
Junior Manes, a 30-year-old construction worker, said he was talking with friends on the sidewalk when it happened. “He was speeding,” Manes said. “She was crossing in the crosswalk and he hit her. She flew up in the air and landed over by the dumpster but in the road, like 25 feet.” Video obtained by the Daily News shows Campbell tumbling multiple car lengths across the pavement as the motorcycle zooms past. Manes said the rider stopped, looked at her, and then “kept going.”
Campbell’s grandson arrived shortly after the crash. He had just left her to go get her food, Manes said, and came back to find her on the ground. “He was shocked to see her on the floor,” Manes said.
The family she leaves behind is large. Campbell raised three children and had eight grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. Her granddaughter, 32-year-old Sharice Thomas, described a woman who spent decades caring for other people, first as a paid home health attendant and then as the center of her own family and her church.
“She was always smiling. She was amazing,” Thomas said. “I feel faint. I don’t even know how I’m going to tell my children.”
“She was dedicated to her church family and her grandkids,” Thomas added. “She spent her life taking care of people.”
Campbell was a fixture on White Plains Road, the commercial spine that runs past the intersection where she was killed. Thomas said the shopkeepers there all knew her. “All the stores on White Plains Road knew her and loved her,” she said. “She wouldn’t know you from a hole in the wall but she would always give you everything. She wouldn’t let you leave without a cookie, a hard candy or a bottle of water.”
“She spent her life giving,” Thomas said.
The NYPD has not announced an arrest. The department has asked the public to report information on hit-and-run crashes through Crime Stoppers.
Featured image: Courtesy of Familiy)
