One of the drivers allegedly responsible for mowing down a beloved Bronx football coach days after Thanksgiving turned himself in to police on Thursday.
According to police sources, 25-year-old Sheydon McLean surrendered to cops on May 8 for a Nov. 30, 2024 pile-up that left 60-year-old Dwight Downer dead.
Following an investigation by the NYPD Highway District Collision Investigation Squad, cops believe McLean was driving a 2013 BMW 328 XI Eastbound on Eastchester Road when he struck a pickup truck that was traveling northbound on Givan Avenue.
After the initial collision, the BMW careened into an unattended 2020 Acura MDX and a 2007 Nissan Murano. Downer was standing beside the Nissan when the BMW struck him. The vehicle finally came to rest by striking an unoccupied 2014 Honda Accord and a 2007 Toyota Camry.
Downer, a beloved coach for the Bronx Buccaneers Youth Football Program and the teams at Dewitt Clinton High School, had just parked his Nissan and was feet away from his home when he was allegedly mowed down by McLean. He was rushed to Jacobi Hospital where he could not be saved and was pronounced dead.
The pickup driver, 27-year-old Orville Berry fled the scene of the incident but was arrested last month on charges of leaving the scene of an incident resulting in death and aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle.
Injured, McLean remained on the scene and was also hospitalized.
Sources familiar with the incident report that following a long-term investigation, McLean was found to be responsible for the death after also being found to be driving without a license. He was charged on May 9 with manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and driving without a license.
Detectives marched McLean out of the 47th Precinct on Thursday in handcuffs. With a hood pulled up tight over his head, his long hair covering his face, McLean bowed his head and refused to answer questions from reporters.
