An SUV driver accused of fleeing after fatally striking a gospel drummer and devoted father of a 4-year-old boy in East Williamsburg in February turned himself in to police on Monday, authorities said.
Gregory Ventura, 35, arrived with an attorney at a Downtown Brooklyn precinct at about 8:40 a.m. and was charged with criminally negligent homicide in the death of 31-year-old Joshua Germain, who was hit in the early hours of Feb. 15, police and sources said.
Germain was walking across Vandervoort Avenue at Maspeth Avenue around 12:15 a.m. when Ventura, driving a Nissan Murano, struck him and left the scene, according to police.
Germain, who suffered critical injuries, was taken to Elmhurst Hospital Center, where he died on Feb. 20 — the same day as his father’s birthday.
Only a week before the crash, Germain had been at an event at his young son’s school, his father, Jean Germain, told The Post on Monday.
“He made sure that he was at every game, every school event,” the elder Germain said. “The last event he went to with his son was like a little party they had at the school. He was there with his son on a Friday before he passed away.
“A week before [his death], he was at his son’s school, and tomorrow that’s his son’s graduation,” he added. “He loved his son. He was a lovely son, a lovely father.”
As a student, Germain was known as an exceptional drummer, his father said, and once earned recognition at McDonald’s Gospelfest for a percussion performance while he was in high school.
He also had a passion for mentoring those younger than him, according to his father.
“When he was in high school, he used to work with children and young kids. That’s the kind of kid he was growing up,” he said. “All those kids’ parents came to his funeral, all the kids, because they’re grown now, they all came to his funeral.”
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As an adult, Germain was a “hardworking man” with a “nice union job,” his dad said.
“He was helping everybody on the street, everybody that he loves,” the older Germain added.
“My son is very, very fun to be around – always smiling, always, always smiling, always ready to help friends, always ready to help people, like old ladies, old men.”
After learning of Germain’s death, those he helped tried to “repay” the family “because of what my son did for them,” his dad said.
“But people calling me, talking to me, supporting me, that’s all I need from people, and that’s what I’m getting from them, you know?” he said.
In the months after the tragic hit-and-run, Jean Germain said he has filled his young grandson’s life with travel.
“After his father passed away, I sent him on a cruise,” he said. “He went to Playa del Carmen, he went to Aruba. My grandson, already four years old, has six stamps on his passport.”
Asked if the alleged hit-and-run driver’s arrest brought him some solace, he only replied, “Yes … yes.”
“To me, it’s a big loss,” he added of his son’s death.
Ventura, who has no previous arrests, was also charged with leaving the scene of an accident causing death, reckless driving and moving unsafely from a lane, police said.
He was arraigned on an indictment in Brooklyn Supreme Court on Monday and granted supervised release by Justice Danny Chun – as requested by prosecutors – because he surrendered on his own accord.
He will reappear in court Aug. 18, the Brooklyn DA’s office said.
