Newburgh lunch monitor injured by hit-and-run driver in Poughkeepsie
Sophia Coleman-Guillen, who lives in New Windsor, was hit by a car on Palmer Avenue in Poughkeepsie Saturday around 3 a.m. after picking up her 19-year-old son from a late shift at work.
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A Newburgh lunch monitor is recovering from serious injuries after she was struck by a hit-and-run driver over the weekend.
"I have bleeding on my brain, broken teeth. My nose is broken. My ankle is fractured. My knee is fractured,” says Sophia Coleman-Guillen.
Coleman-Guillen, who lives in New Windsor, was hit by a car on Palmer Avenue in Poughkeepsie Saturday around 3 a.m. after picking up her 19-year-old son from a late shift at work.
“It seems like they floored it. I just heard the acceleration of the gas,” says Coleman Guillen.
Coleman-Guillen and her son, Omar Thomas, say they both saw a vehicle idling nearby before it sped up and clipped Sophia while she walked to the passenger’s side of her Jeep to open the door for her girlfriend.
“She went up her side, hit the mirror, over the front and fell,” Thomas says.
The victim’s girlfriend lives nearby. Coleman-Guillen says she believes whoever hit her did it on purpose.
“They only hit me,” the victim says.
City of Poughkeepsie police confirm they’re looking for the driver but they have not said that Coleman-Guillen was intentionally struck.
Coleman-Guillen says she just wants to be OK enough to return to her students at Newburgh Free Academy Main when school resumes from break.
“I’m strong and I really refuse to let this or anyone stop me,” Coleman-Guillen says. “I put a smile on those kids faces. if I’m not there, it dampens their day.”
The victim says the car that hit her was a black SUV - possibly a Nissan.
City of Poughkeepsie police are asking anyone with information to contact them at 845-451-4000.
