Cops: Tow Truck Driver Fatally Punched Man Twice His Age

A tow truck driver killed a man twice his age with a single punch during a dispute in Brooklyn Saturday night, authorities say. Police say Carlyle Thomas, a 61-year-old former jockey from Jamaica, confronted the 30-year-old tow truck driver as his Honda Odyssey was being towed from a Shell station in East Flatbush, the New York Daily News reports. Police say Thomas was knocked to the ground and hit his head on concrete after the punch, which was captured on surveillance video. He died in a local hospital. The driver, Kevon Johnson, was taken into custody and faces an assault charge, ABC7 reports.

Relatives say the station was a regular hangout for Thomas, who lived down the street. The station charged $10 for people to park there overnight and relatives say that while Thomas apparently didn't pay this time, the owner had his number and could have called him instead of having his car towed. "We thought the gas station guys and him were cool because he was in there helping and unpacking with them," nephew Dominic Graham tells the Daily News. "We didn't think they'd ever call a tow truck and do that."

Graham describes his uncle, who worked training and feeding horses at a racetrack in Queens, as "like the neighborhood boss. He knows everyone and chills out with everyone." Imran Aziz, a worker at the Shell station, also thinks it was a mistake to call the tow truck. "He was a family member in here. I'll be honest," he says of Thomas. "Whenever somebody tried to steal something in here, he was the kind of guy who'd grab stuff and bring it back to me." (More New York City stories.)