Off-duty rookie cop was killed in fiery crash
An off-duty female NYPD officer assigned to the 9th Precinct was killed in a fiery car crash in Pelham Bay Wednesday that left another officer in serious condition, police sources said.
Authorities say 27-year-old rookie Officer Bianca Bennett, of Queens, was a passenger in a red Dodge Durango around 11:45 p.m. when the driver lost control and ran off the road at City Island Road and Park Drive.
The car flipped and burst into flames and another two off-duty cops who were happening by rushed to help, not knowing two colleagues were inside.
Bennett, a recent graduate of the police academy who was assigned to the East Village precinct on April 20, 2016, was badly burned and pronounced dead at the scene.
“I saw the car flip over, and then I see the fire in the front of the car,” witness Pamella Duncan told Channel 7. “And everybody was getting out of the car to find out if somebody was right there, inside of the car. Next thing, somebody’s in the car, but nobody could get to it because the fire start.”
Sources say the driver, a 32-year-old off-duty NYPD sergeant assigned to PSA 4, was rushed to Jacobi Hospital in serious but stable condition with leg trauma and burns.
He was pulled from the wreckage by other off-duty NYPD officers who were driving home from the Rodman’s Neck shooting range in the Bronx, where they are assigned.
Sources say they spotted the crash and rushed to help, dragging him out of the burning vehicle.
The good Samaritans were treated for smoke inhalation and other minor injuries, also at Jacobi Medical Center.