A 93-year-old great-grandmother killed in a Bronx crosswalk when a hit-and-run motorcyclist slammed into her was a retired home health aide who spent her life caring for others, her heartbroken family says.
Lenora Campbell was crossing E. 225th St. at White Plains Road in Wakefield when the motorcyclist struck her about 2:30 p.m. Monday, cops said.
“She was always smiling. She was amazing,” said the victim’s granddaughter, 32-year-old Sharice Thomas. “I feel faint. I don’t even know how I’m going to tell my children.”
The retired health attendant devoted her life to her family, including her three children, eight grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
“She was dedicated to her church family and her grandkids,” said Thomas. “She spent her life taking care of people.”
Campbell lived less than four blocks from where she was killed.
“All the stores on White Plains Road knew her and loved her,” said Thomas. “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 added.
Video obtained by the Daily News shows the victim tumbling multiple car lengths across the pavement after being struck, the motorcycle zooming past her as she comes to a stop on the pavement.
“He was speeding,” said Junior Manes, a 30-year-old construction worker who was chatting with friends on the sidewalk when he witnessed the crash. “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.”
“She was face down,” he added. “Her face and forehead were bleeding, oozing.”
Manes said he watched as the man stopped his bike, looked at the victim and then “kept going.”
The victim’s grandson arrived at the scene shortly after the crash.
“Her grandson was looking at her by the curb,” Manes said. “He said he’d just left her to get her some food. He was shocked to see her on the floor.”
Medics rushed Campbell to Jacobi Medical Center, where she died.
The driver of the gray-red-and-white bike fled and has not been caught, police said.