A woman has been arrested and charged in Los Angeles after a hit and run incident in which an elderly Holocaust survivor was killed.
Joyce Berman McKinney, 68, was arrested on Tuesday after the death of Gennady Bolotsky two weeks ago in the Valley Village neighbourhood of the city.
Authorities had offered a reward of $50,000 (£39,750) for information leading to the suspect.
Surveillance footage showed Mr Bolotsky being knocked over at around 5.30 am on June 17, as he walked his dog.
The transit van stopped, only to resume movement seconds later, driving over the body. Mr Bolotsky died from his injuries.
The 91-year old was born in Ukraine and escaped the Nazi occupation when the Germans invaded in 1941. He subsequently migrated with his family to America in the late 1970s.
On Wednesday, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office announced that Ms McKinney had been charged with killing Mr Bolotsky, facing one felony count each of assault with a deadly weapon, an automobile, hit-and-run driving resulting in death, and vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence.
If convicted as charged, she faces a maximum sentence of 11 years in prison.
Gennady Bolotsky’s son, Michael Bolotsky, described his father as a man who "was supposed to live to 100 or more. At 91, he had more energy than a person half his life.”
Adriana Bolotsky, the grandson of the deceased, told KCAL9, a local news channel, that the family was “angry…devastated.”
She described how her grandfather had “escaped Nazi occupation, survived literally everything…and this is how he went.
“None of us can put these pieces together.”
