The man wanted in connection with a hit-and-run accident that killed a Maspeth bar owner was arrested by a U.S Marshals Regional Fugitive Task Force Tuesday in Connecticut.
Peter Rodriguez, 36 of Brooklyn, had been on the run from police for exactly one month after allegedly causing a head-on collision near 58th Street that killed George Gibbons, 37.
He was arraigned yesterday morning in Queens Criminal Court and charged with second-degree manslaughter, second- and third-degree assault, criminally negligent homicide and a felony count of leaving the scene of a crime without reporting it.
Rodriguez was held without bail and faces up to 15 years in prison.
Eamen Gibbons, George Gibbon’s brother, attended the arraignment with his siblings. He said it was his first look in person at the man who allegedly killed his brother.
“My heart started pounding a little quicker,” Eamen Gibbons said. “I was glad to actually look at him even though he held his head down the whole time. He never looked up or around the room.”
Maspeth, Middle Village and the surrounding neighborhoods were plastered this week with wanted posters featuring a photo of Rodriguez, who police suspect was drunk at the time of the wrong-way crash.
Community members banded together to offer a $10,000 reward for any tips leading to Rodriguez.
As recently as this Sunday, the Gibbons family and Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley were on the streets distributing more fliers and encouraging anyone with information about Rodriguez to turn him in.
The Queens District Attorney’s office’s said it was an anonymous tip that led to Rodriguez’s capture.
“It shows that a community can come together and take somebody that doesn’t belong on the street off of it,” Eamen Gibbons said.
George Gibbons was killed after closing his bar, Gibbons’ Home, on the morning of Oct. 15. He was riding in a livery cab on the Long Island Expressway service road near 58th Street when a Chrysler Sebring going the wrong direction struck the cab, killing Gibbons, and injuring the cab driver and a passenger in the Sebring.
The driver of the Sebring, who police later identified as Rodriguez, fled the scene.
Rodriguez will return to court on Dec. 2.
By Jeremiah Dobruck
