A Brooklyn driver plunged his car â decorated with two hand grenade stickers â into the heavily polluted Gowanus Canal Monday morning after fleeing from a nearby hit-and-run, police sđources said.
Matthew Muđ´rphy, 36, was arrested by police after managing to escape his sinking Audi sedan in the waters on Degraw SęĻtreet near Bond Street.
Murphy áŠáŠáŠáŠáŠáŠâ¤â¤â¤â¤áŠâ¤â¤â¤â¤áŠâ¤â¤â¤â¤áŠđąáŠáŠáŠalleđgedly struck a 41-year-old woman at Degraw and Court Street as she was putting her 1-year-old baby into her Toyota Camry, police sources said.
She suffered a foot injury, sources added.
Murphy then fled three blocks down Degraw but ran out ođf room on the icy, dead-end street. The car plummeted into the water around 11:15 a.m., sources said.
âWhat caught my attention was the spđ eed of the car. It was going around 70, 80 mph,â said Maurice Deas, 36, who works on the set for the âTV show âThe Americans.â
Murphy was able to open the door â even as the car started to sink â and managedáŠáŠáŠáŠáŠáŠâ¤â¤â¤â¤áŠâ¤â¤â¤â¤áŠâ¤â¤â¤â¤áŠđąáŠáŠáŠ to escape, with Deas and another man helping him out of the freezing wateđr.
Deas said Muđērphy, who was wet uâp to the ankles, was visibly shaken up.
âHe was a little out of it. He kept saying he was an Iraqi đwar veteran,âīˇē said Deas. âHe was a little delirious. He kept saying the ice made him slip. He was trying to stop.â
Deas said it was lucky there werenât any pedestrians at the intersection of Hoyt and Degraw stęĻreets because the driver blew through a stop sign on the one-way street.
âHonestly, I didnât seâe any brake lights. We have our guys out here all the time,â said Deas. âIf they had been out here, somebody wouldâve gođ§tten badly hurt, like seriously hurt.â
A police source said the earlier hit-and-ręĻĢun didnât appear to be serious and that đˇthe woman and child were taken to Methodist Hospital as a precautionary measure.
The source also said Muđrphy didnât appear to brake at all before he took a dive in the drink.
âHe was trying to evade police aftđšer anđą accident. He wasnât familiar with the area and thatâs how this whole thing happened,â a police source said.
The driver was seen limping at the scene, his car still partially submerged in thđ§¸e choppy waters.
He was charged with leaving the scene of an accđident and reckless endangerment, sources said.
Additional reporting by Larry Celona, Tina Moore and Leonica Valentine