BMW Driver Charged After Coach D Killed in Bronx Crash
Police later charged the BMW driver with manslaughter after a Nov. 30, 2024 chain-reaction crash recorded at 12:07 a.m. at Eastchester Road and Givan Avenue killed 60-year-old pedestrian Dwight Downer.
What We Know
Dwight Downer, a retired correction officer and football coach known as Coach D, was standing near his Nissan Murano on Eastchester Road when a chain-reaction crash reached him just after midnight on Nov. 30, 2024. Police said a 24-year-old BMW driver traveling east on Eastchester Road collided with a northbound pickup driver at Givan Avenue, and the BMW was then carried into parked vehicles and Downer. Downer died at Jacobi. Months later, police charged the pickup driver with leaving the scene and aggravated unlicensed operation, and charged the BMW driver with manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and driving without a license.
A midnight collision became a fatal chain reaction
The crash record places the collision at 12:07 a.m. on Nov. 30, 2024, at Eastchester Road and Givan Avenue in the Bronx, with one pedestrian killed and one motorist injured.
Police told reporters that a 24-year-old BMW driver was traveling east on Eastchester Road when he collided with a pickup driver traveling north on Givan Avenue. After that first impact, the BMW was carried into parked vehicles and Dwight Downer, who was standing alongside his Nissan Murano, before the BMW came to a stop after more parked vehicles were damaged.
EMS took Downer to NYC Health + Hospitals/Jacobi, where he was pronounced dead. Police said the BMW driver remained at the scene and was treated for minor injuries, while the pickup driver left the scene.
Eastchester Road has a long crash record
The fatal crash happened at Eastchester Road and Givan Avenue in the Bronx, within the Eastchester Road corridor tracked by CrashCountNYC.
Since 2022, CrashCountNYC’s location context for Eastchester Road in the Bronx shows 451 crashes, 310 injuries, 16 serious injuries and 1 death.
Downer was remembered as Coach D
Dwight Downer was 60. Reports described him as a retired correction officer, a father of two and a football coach at DeWitt Clinton High School who was known as Coach D.
Norwood News reported that Downer also coached the Bronx Buccaneers, whose players trained at Williamsbridge Oval. Family, friends, colleagues and players gathered there after his death to pay tribute.
Downer’s sister Karen Green told the Daily News, “He loved life,” adding, “Every Super Bowl he would cook. He had a large circle of friends. People loved him.”
Investigators cited speed, inattention and traffic control
The official crash record lists driver inattention or distraction as a contributing factor. Vehicle-level records list driver inattention or distraction and unsafe speed for the BMW driver, and traffic-control disregard and driver inattention or distraction for the pickup driver.
Reports after the May arrest agreed that police charged the BMW driver with manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and driving without a license. The outlets differed on the spelling of his surname: the Daily News reported Sheydon McClean, while Norwood News and Bronx Times reported Sheydon McLean.
Police identified the pickup driver as Orville Berry and charged him with leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death and aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle.
Arrests brought grief, not closure
After the BMW driver’s arrest, Downer’s mother Norma Downer told the Daily News, “These arrests cannot bring back my child. Still, something has to be done.”
Bronx Times reported that Downer’s partner, Tasha Andrews, said, “I just miss my best friend. I miss my partner. I just miss his presence.”