NYPD cops have arrested the hit-and-run driver who mowed down a beloved 79-year-old Queens grandmother while out Christmas shopping more than two years ago, police said Friday.
On Thursday, investigators charged Edward Garzon, 43, with leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death for Dec. 13, 2021 Queens crash that ended the life of Helena Conti.
Conti was crossing Cooper Ave. near 83rd St. outside a cemetery in Glendale, Queens, as she returned to her parked car with gifts she purchased from a nearby mall for an upcoming family trip to Virginia when she was mowed down by a blue sedan allegedly driven by Garzon, who then sped off, police said.
Gardiner Anderson/for New York Daily News
Helena Conti’s holiday gifts were scattered near the scene on Cooper Ave. in Queens on December 13, 2021. (Gardiner Anderson for New York Daily News)
The remnants of her holiday shopping spree, from shattered mugs and toys to pieces of Mickey Mouse themed-presents, remained strewn across Cooper Ave. after the vehicle took off. Conti had been shopping at the Atlas Park mall across the street, cops said.
Conti left behind three children and a half-dozen grandkids, relatives said. She was just days away from flying south for the coming holidays when she was killed, her son Patrick Conti told the Daily News at the time.
“How someone can hit-and-run a grandma out Christmas shopping, crossing the street carrying gifts for her family, and you just leave her there?” the distraught son said. “She deserves better than that.
“We’re devastated right now, struggling to wrap our heads around this,” he said.
Gardiner Anderson/for New York Daily News
Police search for evidence after Helena Conti was mowed down by a hit-and-run driver on Cooper Avenue in December 2021. (Gardiner Anderson for New York Daily News)
Garzon lives in Queens, about four miles from where the fatal crash occurred. Queens prosecutors indicted him for the hit-and-run and he was taken into custody on an arrest warrant Thursday.
He was released without bail and is due back in court on July 22, officials said.
It was not immediately disclosed how investigators zeroed in on Garzon.
Conti was well known in her Forest Hills neighborhood, walking her two poodles every morning and making stops along the way to greet locals. Her family was left to deal with the tragedy so close to the holidays that Conti loved so much.
After his mother’s death, Patrick Conti made a holiday plea for the hit-and-driver to turn himself in and give his family some closure.
“We hope whoever is responsible takes a moment to imagine it was their mother, grandmother, sister, aunt or daughter,” he said. “It’s never too late to do the right thing.”