A Brooklyn hit-and-run driver cops say fatally struck a former church choir drummer who was the father of a young boy in February has been arrested — after police tracked the suspect’s damaged luxury SUV to a repair shop in Illinois, the Daily News has learned.
Gregory Ventura, 35, surrendered to police Monday morning to face charges in the death of Joshua Germain, 31. The victim’s family says Germain was struck crossing the street to a party at an East Williamsburg club after getting out of an Uber.
“Relief can never come now because relief cannot bring him back,” the victim’s mother, Kertilde Germain, 58, said of the arrest. “The damage was so bad, the back of the skull dislocated from the spine.”
The victim leaves a 4-year-old son behind.
“He’s aware that his father’s not coming back,” Kertilde said of her grandson. “We have to deal with him psychologically. He cries every day. He needs his dad and he knows his dad is in heaven.”
Joshua’s father, who asked to be identified only as Mr. Germain, took his grandson to Joshua’s grave in Cypress Hills Cemetery on Father’s Day Sunday.
“I had to visit my son in the cemetery for Father’s Day,” he said, breaking down in tears. “That is hurting me a lot, It’s hurting me.”
Ventura is charged with criminally negligent homicide and leaving the scene of a fatal crash.
The victim won an award at McDonald’s Gospelfest for his drumming while in high school, his mother said.
“He was a devoted church member,” she said. “He won best drummer in band. He won a trophy as the best drummer.”
The family had to make the heart-wrenching decision to take him off life support.
“I was in the hospital from the day he went to the hospital to the day he went to the morgue,” the victim’s father said. “He was braindead. I realized that my son was dead already and I wasn’t about to leave him (like that).”
Kertilde said she had surgery for congestive heart failure after her son’s death.
“As a mother, due to the situation, I had heart surgery because of shock,” she said. “I cried every single day knowing this thing happened.”
Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News; Courtesy of family
Joshua Germain, inset, was fatally struck by a Nissan Murano driver early Feb. 15 on Vandervoort Ave. near Rewe St. in Brooklyn. (Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News; Courtesy of family)
Joshua was walking north in the southbound lane of Vandervoort Ave. near Rewe St. when the driver, heading north in a Nissan Murano, struck him as the victim tried to move around slow-moving cars in front of him, police said.
Joshua hit his head on the pavement, suffering severe injuries. He was rushed to Elmhurst Hospital and died five days later.
Courtesy of family
Joshua Germain, 31, was fatally struck by a hit-and-run driver in East Williamsburg on Feb. 15. (Courtesy of family)
The driver fled the scene to his home in Greenpoint, police say, but the NYPD Collision Investigation Squad figured out his name. Then, in March, cops determined through license plate reader alerts that the car was now in Illinois.
Determined NYPD cops eventually tracked the car to a repair shop in Mundelein, sources said.
Ventura works as a vehicle transporter, police sources said. He has done prior business in Illinois and took his damaged car to the shop there, the source said. He dropped it off so the body damage could be fixed, promising to return and pay the bill in cash, according to the sources.
But the NYPD beat him to it, contacting Mundelein police and asking them to seize the vehicle as evidence. The NYPD then obtained a search warrant and towed the car back to New York City.
“My question is why? How do you sleep at night?” the victim’s mother said.
“You don’t give life to no one. Why do you think it’s OK for you to take somebody’s life — and leave the entire family in turmoil, grief and sorrow and anxiety?”
Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News
Gregory Ventura, left, surrenders to police in Brooklyn on Monday morning. (Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News)
During his arraignment in Brooklyn Supreme Criminal Court Monday, prosecutors did not seek bail because Ventura voluntarily surrendered and a judge granted him supervised released.
“I can’t believe the bastard just walked out,’ the victim’s sister said after attending the court proceeding.
Ventura has a prior arrest for marijuana possession in 2016, plus four arrests, dating from that year back to 2009, that are sealed, sources said.
More recently, he was a domestic assault victim in 2024, sources said.
With John Annese