Death on Morton Street: Wrong- Way Van Driver Kills Pedestrian

A young woman was fatally struck by a rental van driving the wrong way down a Greenwich Village street on Thursday, Nov. 6, cops confirmed to Straus News. The unidentified driver of the vehicle remained on scene, was questioned by police, and has not been arrested as of press time.

Straus News visited the scene shortly after, where the black rental van was still parked behind yellow tape. White lettering on the side indicated that it had been acquired from C.C. Rental, which is located just up the street from the site of the crash. Various police cars and DOT investigative vehicles were spotted on scene.

Valerie Schoeck, 27, had reportedly been crossing the intersection of Morton Street and Seventh Avenue in a southbound direction—at around 8:30 a.m.—when she was struck by a 2020 GMC Savanna. The driver of the vehicle, a 61-year-old man, had made an improper turn onto Morton.

Morton Street is eastbound only, and the driver had evidently been traversing it in a westbound direction in order to get to Seventh Avenue, instead of having to circle a few extra blocks to get there. Though NYPD hasn’t confirmed this, it’s near certain that the driver’s fatal mistake came when he made a wrong-way right turn off of Bleecker Street.

Schoeck was rushed to NYC Health and Hospitals/Bellevue by responding EMS personnel, where she was pronounced dead. An investigation remains ongoing by the NYPD Highway District’s Collision Investigation Squad, cops say.

According to a report in People, a man working at C.C. Rental spotted Schoeck on the ground, where she was receiving CPR from a passerby; video surveillance footage reportedly showed a man running over in an attempt to revive her. The employee of the garage called 911, which sent an ambulance.

People noted that Schoeck moved to New York City from Cambridge, Mass., and that she was engaged to be married. One commenter on a TikTok video about the incident—posted by the AM radio station 1010 WINS—said that Schoeck was her “nephew’s fiancé.”

“We are all shocked and desperately saddened and in disbelief. Her name is Valerie. She was to be married in June,” the woman, who went by Carol, wrote. “There are no words to describe the grief. She was an extraordinary gorgeous young lady. Thank you for your prayers.”

According to Schoeck’s LinkedIn profile, she was the vice president of the corporate consultancy firm Argot Partners, LLC. She held a bachelor’s degree in communication from College of Charleston, in South Carolina.

According to a profile on the company’s website, she had joined the firm in July 2020, “where she served as a summer intern in 2018 and 2019.” Schoeck’s bereaved fiancé, Ross Barlow, appears to be a vice president at Wildcat Capital Management.