72-year-old charged in fatal Brooklyn hit-and-run that killed former Nickelodeon star

NYPD arrested a 72-year-old Brooklyn driver eight months after a hit-and-run killed former Nickelodeon star Kianna Underwood, charges that followed his claim he did nothing wrong.

The New York Post reported that Michael Griffiths was cuffed Tuesday and charged with leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death and leaving the scene of an accident with injury. The arrest came long after the Jan. 16 crash that killed Underwood, 33, in Brownsville.

Underwood, who appeared on the final season of “All That” in 2005, was struck around 6:50 a.m. near Watkins Street and Pitkin Avenue. Police said she was pronounced dead at the scene with severe trauma.

Surveillance obtained by the Post showed a grim sequence. Underwood crossed against the light. Griffiths’ 2021 black Ford Explorer crossed the double yellow line into the opposite lane to pass a stopped car, hit her in the crosswalk, and sent her flying. A second black-and-gray sedan then ran her over and dragged her.

Griffiths said he hit “something” and left for medication

A police source said the second vehicle dragged her “several hundred feet.” She was found at Osborn Street and Pitkin Avenue. Bystanders were present as the chaos unfolded.

In late January, Griffiths spoke to the New York Daily News and insisted he had done nothing wrong. He described the morning this way:

“At the time it was a little bit darkish. I was going to work...It felt like I hit something, and I pulled over and stopped,”

He said he saw the second car hit and drag a person, tried with bystanders to flag that vehicle down, then left because he needed medication and felt like he was going to faint. Police later impounded his Ford Explorer.

Records showed the vehicle had already been ticketed for 41 violations, including 25 for speeding. That paper trail sat in plain sight while the case waited months for an arrest. Cases like this join a long list of violent deaths that end with delayed charges, including a California roommate arrested after remains were found in a backyard grave.

Second driver still missing from the public account

NYPD charged Griffiths on the leaving-the-scene counts. The public reporting does not name or charge the driver of the second sedan that ran over Underwood and dragged her body. Eight months passed between the crash and Griffiths’ arrest.

Underwood had struggled with homelessness in recent years and was a frequent sight on Brownsville streets. Her death fits a grim pattern of high-profile killings that shock the public and then grind through slow justice, much like the killing of a Mexican influencer at a taco shop that added to a string of social-media figures slain in two years.

Crossing against the light put her in danger. Crossing the double yellow to pass a stopped car put Griffiths’ SUV on a collision course. Leaving the scene after impact, and after watching another car drag a human being, is the conduct the charges now target.

Traffic record and delayed cuffs raise hard questions

A car carrying 41 prior tickets, a quarter of them for speeding, was still on the road at 6:50 a.m. when the crash happened. City records and street cameras captured the path. Yet the cuffs came roughly eight months later. That gap is not abstract for families waiting on answers. Similar delays mark other fatal cases that finally produce charges, from a Baltimore teen charged after texted death threats turned into a double killing to probes that stretch across borders.

Griffiths’ own account put him at the scene, described the second car’s drag, and admitted he left. He framed the exit as a medical need. Prosecutors will have to test that story against the video, the tickets, and the statutes on leaving the scene when someone dies.

Law-and-order basics still apply on Brooklyn asphalt. Drivers who strike a person in a crosswalk, watch another vehicle finish the job, and drive away face the leaving-the-scene counts for a reason. Victims’ families should not wait three seasons of a calendar for the first set of cuffs, a frustration also felt when an illegal immigrant released at the border later faced a murder charge in Virginia.

The second sedan’s driver remains a blank line in the public file. Underwood’s final minutes were captured on camera and in street reports. Accountability cannot stop at one set of handcuffs if two vehicles did the damage.

Hit-and-run deaths demand fast arrests, full identification of every vehicle involved, and consequences that match the body left in the street, not months of drift while a ticket-heavy SUV sits in the story’s background.