Police have arrested a woman accused of striking and killing a man and injuring three others in a hit-and-run rampage in Philadelphia a day after Christmas last year.
On Wednesday, police identified Neera Nicolas-Hudson, 32, as the hit-and-run driver and an arrest warrant was issued for her. She was taken into custody on Thursday and is charged with murder, homicide by vehicle and other related offenses.
On December 26, 2022, around 8 p.m., Hudson was driving a 2005 Ford Mustang in the parking lot of Rivers Casino along the 100 block of North Delaware Avenue when she crashed into a 51-year-old man on a grey electric scooter, knocking him to the pavement and shattering his leg, police said. The man was taken to the hospital where he was placed in stable condition.
Nicolas-Hudson continued driving recklessly near the casino's valet area, striking three other vehicles, including a 2022 Toyota Camry driven by a 48-year-old woman who suffered a minor injury, according to police.
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After fleeing the scene on Delaware Avenue, Nicolas-Hudson was later seen by witnesses weaving in-and-out of traffic at a high rate of speed along North Broad Street, where she struck a 53-year-old man on a bicycle near the intersection with Spring Garden Street, according to investigators. That man was taken to a hospital and placed in stable condition as well.
Nicolas-Hudson then fled the scene once again and continued onto the corner of Broad Street and Lehigh Avenue where she struck 22-year-old Roland Darrel White who was walking in the area, police said. White was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead at 8:36 p.m. that night.
Clarence Summers told NBC10 he witnessed the deadly crash.
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"I've never seen nothing like that in my life," Summers said. "Can you imagine seeing a body flying through the air from Lehigh Avenue all the way to half way down the street? Terrible."
Responding police officers later found Nicolas-Hudson's Mustang unoccupied with a busted windshield and smashed front end near the intersection of Broad Street and Indiana Avenue, roughly a quarter of a mile from where White was killed, investigators said.
"I'm not understanding how you can live with yourself knowing that you took somebody's life," White's mother, Shannon Peoples-Prophet, told NBC10. "You just left him laying in this street. Right here. Like you didn't give a damn about him. Excuse my language. I'm sorry. I'm frustrated. I'm hurt. We should not have to remember my son this way."
White's family members told NBC10 they've had trouble getting information from police since the crash occurred nearly five months ago. They also said they found out about Nicolas-Hudson through the media rather than police.
"Nobody can understand the pain we're going through," Peoples-Prophet said. "She's been out here for almost five months. In two days it will be five months she took my child from me."
"Somebody out there knows her," White's grandmother, Wanda Johnson, told NBC10. "I'm begging you on bended knees, just please turn this girl in. My daughter hurts everyday. My grandson shuts down. The kids are not themselves. It's hard. I got to hear her screaming. It's not fair. It is not."
