Crime & Safety

Bed-Stuy Biz Owner and 3-yr-old Son in Critical Condition After Car Accident

Wendy McLein, owner of Denim Lounge, and her son were badly injured after a car jumped the curb and hit them Saturday night

A well-known Bed-Stuy business owner and her son are in critical condition after they were hit by a car Saturday night while standing at a bus stop.

Wendy McLein, 37, and her 3-year-old son Denim, were standing near the corner of Church and Utica avenues in East Flatbush on Saturday, March 30, at approximately 6:47 p.m. when a Lincoln sedan driving northbound suddenly swerved from the street onto the sidewalk and barreled into the crowd, injuring McLein and her son and at least 10 other people, reported police.

McLein owns Denim Lounge and Denim Café, both on Bedford Avenue, and was in the process of putting the finishing touches on a new lounge and cabaret on Fulton Street between Franklin and Classon avenues.

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She and her son were badly injured when a piece of heavy scaffolding from a nearby construction site fell on the two victims, after the car crashed through the crowd and into the building.

The driver said she jumped the curb after her brakes failed and to avoid hitting a car in front of her that was stationery. The driver and her passenger were also among the injured, as well as a woman who was pinned between the car and the storefront.

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McLein and her son were rushed to Kings County Hospital. The boy's aunt told the New York Post that Denim was likely brain-dead and his mother was in a semi-coma. Another source close to to Wendy said both her legs were broken.

“I cried this morning when I heard the news,” said a 79th Pct. Officer. His head was dropped as he could barely retell the story. “I had just seen Wendy and her son that morning at the Easter Egg Hunt, and I was picking the little boy up, bouncing him up and down like this… he was just smiling, laughing…”

But eyewitnesses to the accident said the car came barreling from out of nowhere so fast, and there literally was nothing anyone standing at the bus stop could do to move fast enough, reported Eyewitness News 7. In fact, for some who watched it unfold, it was too much to take.

“This is terrible,” Henry Butler, president of Community Board 3, said on Monday. “Wendy was on the schedule to speak tonight at the community board meeting about an issue with her new business she recently opened on Fulton Street. This is really hard for me and the community to believe. The community keeps her family in our prayers.”


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