Driver charged after fatal Gowanus crash at 2nd Avenue
Alexey Ivanov was arrested after police said he sped north on Second Avenue and ran a red light, hitting Arturo Alberto Baez Cordero’s westbound Mercedes in a Gowanus crash that city records list as killing one motorist and injuring two.
What We Know
In Gowanus on Sept. 14, 2025, Alexey Ivanov, 38, was driving north on Second Avenue near 9th Street shortly before 6:30 p.m. when police said he ran a red light and hit a westbound Mercedes driven by Arturo Alberto Baez Cordero. The city crash record lists one motorist killed and two motorists injured, with unsafe speed recorded as a contributing factor; Brooklyn Paper reported four people were injured. Brooklyn Paper reported that Ivanov was arrested hours later on charges including manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, reckless driving, speeding and disobeying a traffic control device. A later El Diario report, citing a criminal complaint, said Ivanov admitted: "For some reason, I made the conscious decision to accelerate."
Police described a red-light crash just before 6:30 p.m.
Police told Brooklyn Paper that Ivanov was driving a Honda minivan north on Second Avenue on Sept. 14 when he allegedly ran a red light and hit the Mercedes driven by Baez Cordero, who was headed west on 9th Street.
Reporters said the impact pushed Baez Cordero’s Mercedes into a Dodge pickup truck and that a fire broke out in one of the cars. Diario Libre reported that firefighters pulled Baez Cordero from the Mercedes before medics took him to Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, where he died.
Baez Cordero was remembered as a Dominican filmmaker
Arturo Alberto Baez Cordero was identified by police and several reports as 34, though an earlier El Diario article described him as 31. Reports from El Diario, Diario Libre and Noticias SIN described him as a Dominican filmmaker and the son of filmmaker Fernando Baez and singer Maria Cordero.
El Diario reported that he lived in Lodi, New Jersey, founded Oeuvre Studios in New Jersey with his wife, actress Lia Lizardo, and had previously co-founded Unicornio Films.
Three drivers were recorded in the crash
The city crash record lists a northbound 2016 Honda with three occupants, a westbound 2006 Mercedes with one occupant, and a southbound 2007 Dodge pickup stopped in traffic. Police accounts described the Honda as an Odyssey minivan; the city record categorized both the Honda and Mercedes as station wagon/SUVs.
The record lists unsafe speed for the crash and lists unsafe speed and traffic-control disregard for the Honda driver.
Press accounts listed more injuries than the city record
The city record lists two motorists injured. Brooklyn Paper reported four injured people: Ivanov, two Honda passengers and the Dodge driver, with one Honda passenger in critical condition the next day.
The crash happened on 9th Street in Gowanus
The fatal crash was recorded at 2nd Avenue and 9th Street in Brooklyn’s Gowanus area.
CrashCountNYC’s Crash Finder counted 602 crashes, 322 injuries, 23 serious injuries and 2 deaths along 9th Street in Brooklyn from 2022 through June 1, 2026.