A former FBI special agent has been charged in federal court in Brooklyn with willfully depriving a man of his constitutional rights under colour of law and with making false statements, after prosecutors alleged that he drove his FBI-issued car the wrong way on Ocean Parkway in February, struck a pedestrian, dragged the unconscious man to a bench, and drove away without calling for help or reporting what had happened. Andrew Reyes, 30, of Brooklyn, was arrested on Thursday morning, November 5, 2026, and the indictment against him was unsealed the same day in the Eastern District of New York, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
Source: U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of New York (DOJ)
United States Attorney Joseph Nocella, Jr., and Ryan T. Geach, Special Agent in Charge of the Justice Department Office of Inspector General's Northeast Region, announced the arrest and charges. Reyes was scheduled to be arraigned on Thursday afternoon before United States Magistrate Judge Clay H. Kaminsky. Court reporting on the arraignment said Reyes pleaded not guilty. Newsday reported that a judge ordered a $100,000 bond, that Reyes's parents signed documents putting up assets for that bond, and that he became emotional during the proceeding.
Source: NewsCord summary of CNN, Newsday and Killeen Daily Herald reporting
What the indictment alleges happened on Ocean Parkway
As alleged in the indictment, on February 3, 2026, Reyes was driving his FBI-issued vehicle in Brooklyn with its emergency lights activated. At about 6:20 a.m., as he approached the intersection of Ocean Parkway and Beverley Road, prosecutors allege he drove on the wrong side of the road — northbound on Ocean Parkway in the southbound lane of traffic — and through a red light. His car, identified in court reporting as a Chevrolet Impala, struck a pedestrian who was crossing the street, knocking him to the pavement and leaving him unconscious.
Prosecutors allege that Reyes then stopped, approached the unconscious victim, and dragged him from the street, across the sidewalk, and placed him on a bench. He also retrieved the victim's bag and placed it next to him on the bench. Reyes then returned to his vehicle, which still had its emergency lights engaged, and drove away, leaving the victim severely injured and unattended. He did not alert medical authorities and did not report the incident, the indictment alleges.
'No one is above the law'
"As alleged, the defendant was driving his government vehicle the wrong way on a major Brooklyn thoroughfare, blew through a red light, struck a pedestrian, and then fled the scene without rendering aid to the severely injured victim or reporting the incident," U.S. Attorney Nocella said. "The defendant's alleged conduct demonstrated a shocking disregard for human life and his sworn oath to uphold the law. The charges announced today send the clear message that no one is above the law and those who abuse their position of trust and deprive citizens of their constitutional rights will be prosecuted." Nocella thanked the New York City Police Department, the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division and the FBI's New York Field Office for their work and cooperation on the case.
The alleged lie to investigators
The second charge concerns what prosecutors say happened months later. When federal agents asked Reyes whether he had ever hit a person with his FBI-issued car and not reported it, he allegedly falsely stated that he had not. Court reporting said agents from the Justice Department's Inspector General's office interviewed him on May 1, and that he denied involvement in any hit-and-run. The FBI's New York field office, according to the Killeen Daily Herald's reporting of the hearing, said it "moved quickly to ensure their immediate dismissal" after learning of the alleged criminal conduct in April. The indictment says Reyes had been a special agent since 2023 and was assigned to the New York Field Office.
The charges against Andrew Reyes are allegations in an indictment. He is presumed innocent unless and until he is proven guilty in court. Assistant U.S. Attorney Gilbert Rein told the magistrate judge at the arraignment, according to court reporting, that Reyes had asked an agent, unprompted, what the agent would do if Reyes took the agent's firearm; prosecutors' request for a mental-health evaluation as a bail condition was declined by the judge.
Bail conditions and what happens next
Court reporting said Magistrate Judge Kaminsky set bail conditions requiring Reyes to surrender his passport and limiting his travel to New York and New Jersey, and declined to add a mental-health evaluation to those conditions. Reyes is due back in court on December 2. The government's case is being handled by the Eastern District office's Human Trafficking and Civil Rights Section and its Public Integrity Section, with Assistant United States Attorneys Miranda Gonzalez and Gilbert M. Rein in charge of the prosecution, assisted by Paralegal Specialist Daniel Arakawa. If convicted, Reyes faces up to 10 years in prison.
Why this case is being watched in New York
Ocean Parkway is one of Brooklyn's major thoroughfares, a wide, tree-lined boulevard carrying heavy morning traffic through residential neighbourhoods including Kensington and Windsor Terrace, near the Beverley Road intersection named in the indictment. Cases in which a federal agent is accused of using a government vehicle, with emergency lights on, in a crash and then leaving an injured person behind are rare, and they test public trust in the agencies that investigate everyone else. For New York's large immigrant communities — including Punjabi and South Asian families across Brooklyn, Queens and the wider metro area who deal with federal agencies on immigration and other matters — the prosecution's message that an agent faces the same criminal process as any other driver is the central point prosecutors themselves chose to stress.