Suffolk police probe Farmingville parking lot hit-and-run injury to woman

Theresa Vazquez, a 75-year-old Bedford mother of three, was injured on the pavement of the Farmingville Fire Department parking lot after her family says an SUV struck her and drove off. The family also alleges that surveillance video from the lot was withheld, turning a parking-lot injury into a dispute over evidence, police review and court action.

Vazquez had parked her car in the lot behind the Farmingville firehouse on her way to play bingo when she was hurt. The case has centered less on the fact of her injury than on how she wound up on the pavement in that spot, a question that has put the firehouse lot itself under scrutiny in Suffolk County.

The family's attorney says the SUV driver left the scene. The family also says the video captured what happened and should have been shared, a claim that has made the handling of the footage a central issue in the case. In a serious crash on private property, that recording can become the clearest account of who was present, how the vehicle moved and whether anyone stopped to help.

Suffolk County Police Internal Affairs became involved, and the matter moved into court action. That escalation widened the stakes beyond one injury in Farmingville, raising questions about how quickly police and property owners preserve and release surveillance footage when a vulnerable pedestrian is hurt.

The case also fits a broader pattern of hit-and-run and pedestrian injury investigations that have drawn attention in Farmingville and elsewhere on Long Island. For local residents, the facts now tied to Vazquez's injury, her age, the parking lot behind the firehouse, the missing video allegation and the police review, are the details that will shape whether the incident is treated as an ordinary fall or a serious crash that should have been documented from the start.