Grand Jury Declines to Indict Driver in Death Tied to Racial Unrest

A grand jury voted Thursday not to indict the Hasidic Jewish driver of a car that struck a black child and ignited last month’s racial unrest in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, prosecutors said.

The vote came about an hour after the driver, 22-year-old Yosef Lifsh, appeared before the panel in state Supreme Court to give his account.

The panel, which had heard testimony for more than a week, was considering charges of criminally negligent homicide against Lifsh.

Kathleen Healey, a spokeswoman for the district attorney, said the panel voted “no true bill,” meaning it found no criminal wrongdoing in Lifsh’s actions.

Lifsh’s defense lawyer, Barry Slotnick, said: “He told the grand jury about a tragic accident that occurred. Without going into the facts of what he said, he just came here feeling the necessity to explain to the grand jury all the facts about the accident.”

“He was very concerned,” Slotnick said. “He obviously has remorse.”

Seven-year-old Gavin Cato was killed and his cousin Angela, also 7, was injured in the Aug. 19 accident when the station wagon that Lifsh was driving went out of control and went onto a sidewalk.

The victims were Guyanese immigrants, and the accident set off days of racial violence between blacks and Lubavitcher Jewish residents of Crown Heights.

Hours after the accident, a Hasidic student from Australia, Yankel Rosenbaum, 29, was stabbed to death after he was surrounded by a group of angry people. A black youth, Lemrick Nelson, was charged with second-degree murder.

Although Rosenbaum was not involved in the car accident, Mayor David N. Dinkins has said that his death appeared to be in retaliation for Cato’s death.

In the first three nights of violence, police made 61 arrests. At least 25 civilians and 84 police officers were hurt.

Crown Heights has long been plagued with racial animosity. Members of the Lubavitcher sect blame local blacks for crime in the neighborhood; blacks charge that the Jewish sect wields too much power and receives preferential treatment.