A Bronx pedestrian was killed yesterday when a driver was shot in the head and lost control of his vehicle – sending it plowing into a street sign that smashed the passer-by.
Wellington Contreras, 43, of Valentine Avenue was walking along East 194th Street at Briggs Avenue when Shawron Hughes – behind the wheel of a Suzuki car – was shot in the back of the head, cops said.
The car swerved out of control, hopped the curb and plowed into a No Standing sign pole that fell over and struck Contreras in the head, police said.
Contreras was dead on arrival at St. Barnabas Hospital shortly after the 12:20 a.m. incident.
Contreras’ girlfriend of five years, Jacquelin DeJesus, 24, was distraught yesterday as she cuddled the couple’s 8-month-old daughter, Jasmin.
“I don’t feel sorry for myself,” she said. “I feel sorry for the baby. I feel really bad. I feel like dying.”
She said that when Contreras got off work about 10 p.m., he wanted to take the baby with him as he went out to buy food but that she instead decided to leave the child with an aunt.
“He left to get something to eat, and that was last I saw of him,” she said between sobs.
DeJesus said she was unaware that Contreras – the father of five – was dead until the hospital called at 1:30 a.m.
Hughes, 21, of the Grand Concourse, was listed in critical but stable condition at St. Barnabas Hospital.
Cops said the unidentified gunman fired eight 9 mm shots into the car – also containing two other male passengers – but only struck Hughes with one shot. Police said they did not know if Hughes was the intended victim or why the gunman unloaded on the vehicle’s passengers.
Police said they were talking with the other passengers, trying to learn whether the shooting was drug related.
Hughes has been arrested twice before. He served 30 days in jail last year for assault and was charged with hindering prosecution in January 2005.
Heidi Gonzales, 23, who lives in the same building as Contreras and DeJesus, said gunplay was familiar in her Bedford Park neighborhood.
“We hear gunfire all the time around here after midnight,” she said.