Hit-and-Run Driver Fatally Injures Pedestrian on Hillside Avenue
A hit-and-run driver fatally injured 27-year-old pedestrian Juan Gutierrez Ajpacaja on Hillside Avenue in Queens before dawn on Oct. 5, 2025, police told QNS.
What We Know
A 27-year-old pedestrian was fatally injured before dawn on Oct. 5, 2025, on Hillside Avenue in Queens. The city crash record places the collision at Hillside Avenue and 169th Street at 2:49 a.m. and records one pedestrian death. Police accounts published by QNS and El Diario place the crash at Hillside Avenue and 170th Street around 2:50 a.m. and identify the man as Juan Gutierrez Ajpacaja. QNS reported that police said Gutierrez Ajpacaja was walking in the eastbound lane when a driver in a dark-colored minivan traveling east hit him and sped away. EMS took him to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead on Oct. 15. No arrests had been made.
A pedestrian was hit before dawn and died days later
The city crash record says one 27-year-old male pedestrian was killed in a collision at 2:49 a.m. on Oct. 5, 2025, at Hillside Avenue and 169th Street in Queens.
QNS reported, citing police, that officers responded around 2:50 a.m. to Hillside Avenue and 170th Street after a driver hit Juan Gutierrez Ajpacaja. EMS took him to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead on Oct. 15.
The crash was reported on a busy Jamaica Hills corridor
The official crash record places the collision at Hillside Avenue and 169th Street in Queens; QNS and El Diario reported police accounts placing it one block away at Hillside Avenue and 170th Street.
CrashCountNYC location data for 169th Street in Queens shows 233 crashes, 135 injuries, three serious injuries and one death since 2022.
Police identified the pedestrian as Juan Gutierrez Ajpacaja
QNS reported that the NYPD identified the victim as Juan Gutierrez Ajpacaja, 27, of 149th Street in Jamaica. El Diario reported that he lived about a mile from the crash location.
Records and police accounts describe the vehicle differently
QNS reported that police said Gutierrez Ajpacaja was walking in the eastbound lane of Hillside Avenue when a driver in a dark-colored minivan traveling east hit him and sped away from the scene.
The city crash record lists a 2007 Honda SUV traveling east and going straight ahead, with two occupants and a male driver licensed in New York. It also records alcohol involvement and driver inattention or distraction as contributing factors.
Police were still seeking the driver
QNS reported that no arrests had been made and that the NYPD Highway District's Collision Investigation Squad was investigating. Police asked anyone with information to contact Crime Stoppers.