Little old lady crossing street in crosswalk mowed down dead

A taxi driver in New York City has been arrested in connection with the death of an elderly woman whom he struck Friday on the city’s Upper East Side.

The yellow cab driver, 49-year-old Syed Ullah, of Brooklyn, was charged Saturday morning with failing to yield to a pedestrian, police said.

At about 5:45 p.m. Friday, Ullah was driving east on Third Avenue at East 70th Street when he turned left and hit 80-year-old Barbara Horn, who was walking in the crosswalk, New York Daily News reports.

“He hit her and dragged her. He ran her over,” one witness told the newspaper. “She was a pretty little thing. Beautiful lady. Her whole side was smashed up.”

The witness told the Daily News that she “screamed for someone to call 911” but it was too late.

“I saw her face,” the witness said. “I knew she was dead because her eyes didn’t move. They were looking up. And her mouth didn’t move.”

Emergency responders rushed Horn to New York Presbyterian Hospital in critical condition. She was later pronounced dead, according to police.

Horn lived near where the incident occurred. She had a Ph.D. and three children, according to her doorman, Felix Encarnacion. He became visibly shaken when told about Horn’s death, according to the Daily News.

“Oh my god! Oh my god!” Encarnacion said. “She was the nicest person! She was always so kind to everybody.”

On Friday evening, New York Post published a photo of Ullah laughing while sitting at the scene of the crash.