By Michele Evans / NYweeklyRecord.com / Date: 10/22/2026
Category: NYPD Accountability / Public Safety / Attorney General / Community Impact
NEW YORK CITY, NY –
An off-duty NYPD officer will not face criminal charges in the collision that killed William Huertas as he crossed a Rockland County road after finishing work.
New York Attorney General Letitia James’s Office of Special Investigation announced Wednesday that prosecutors could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the officer committed a crime.
Huertas, 45, worked at the Lowe’s store on Route 303 in Orangeburg. On Dec. 13, 2025, he left his shift and began crossing the four-lane road shortly after 9 p.m. It was dark, and he was outside a marked crosswalk when the officer’s northbound pickup truck struck him.
Huertas was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead.
The Attorney General’s office said its investigation included interviews with the officer and civilian witnesses, security-camera footage, 911 recordings, photographs from the crash scene and a legal review of the evidence.
Investigators found no evidence that the officer was speeding, using a phone, distracted, impaired by drugs or alcohol, driving through a steady red light or stop sign, or otherwise operating the vehicle dangerously. The officer braked before impact, immediately called 911 and joined a civilian witness in performing life-saving measures, according to the state report.
The officer’s name was not included in the Attorney General’s announcement. Subsequent local reporting identified him as Justin Belhouji and reported that his pickup had an illegally tinted windshield. The state nevertheless concluded that the available evidence would not support criminal charges.
That conclusion applies a demanding legal standard. To prove criminally negligent homicide, prosecutors would need to show that the driver failed to perceive a substantial and unjustifiable risk of death, that the failure was a gross departure from reasonable care and that the conduct was blameworthy enough to be criminal.
The Office of Special Investigation said the evidence did not establish those elements beyond a reasonable doubt.
A decision not to prosecute is not the same as a declaration that nothing went wrong. It means the state concluded it could not meet the burden required for a criminal conviction.
Huertas’s death still raises public-safety questions. Route 303 is a commercial corridor with four travel lanes. Workers leaving stores after dark may need to cross a road built primarily for vehicles, even where marked crossings are limited or inconvenient.
The case also tests public confidence in reviews involving police officers outside their official duties. State law requires OSI to assess deaths that may have been caused by police or peace officers, whether the officer was on duty or off duty.
That independent review is meant to avoid the conflict that can arise when a local prosecutor investigates a law-enforcement officer who works in the region. Transparency is central to that mission.
The Attorney General’s public summary identifies the evidence reviewed and explains the criminal standard. But important questions remain for Huertas’s family and the public. The announcement does not explain whether the windshield tint affected visibility, whether any traffic summons was issued or whether the NYPD conducted an internal review.
No criminal case will move forward based on the state investigation. The broader obligation remains: explain what can be changed so another worker does not die crossing the same kind of road after a night shift.
Huertas’s life cannot be reduced to a charging decision. He was a worker heading home. The criminal investigation is over. The public-safety questions are not.
Sources
New York Attorney General, OSI Report on the Death of William Huertas
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