The death of 72-year-old nurse practitioner Martha Rodriguez, who died days after a man running from a group knocked her to the ground in Harlem has been ruled a homicide, authorities said.
Rodriguez — praised in a Daily News story last month for the organs she donated that helped save three lives — was heading home from the movies when a man ran into her and bowled her over outside her Lenox Ave. home near W. 134th St. on Aug. 3.
The man who slammed into Rodriguez may have been in an argument with a group of men before the chase began. One of them had a knife or a sharp object in his hand during the pursuit, PIX11 reported.
A friend of Rodriguez’s, 63-year-old Tom Young, told The News he was briefed by a detective who said video showed the man looked over his shoulder at the men chasing him and was unable to avoid running into her once he turned back around.
Young condemned both the man who knocked Rodriguez down and his pursuers for fleeing the scene instead of helping her.
“It’s sad the way humanity is right now,” Young said. “But then again you have people like Martha, who remind us the battle on Earth is to try to fight that — take away the negativity, take away the inhumanity, where we can.”
Medics rushed Rodriguez to Harlem Hospital with a traumatic head injury. She died three days later, cops said.
Rodriguez worked 28 years as a nurse practitioner at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where she spent the past 15 years assisting patients with breast cancer.
In a final act of giving, her donated organs helped three men between the ages of 64 and 76, according to Leonard Achan, president of LiveOnNY, a non-profit that coordinates organ donations.
The men who received her organs are recovering, according to Achan, and LiveOnNY plans to connect them to Rodriguez’s brothers, who live out of state.
“At the end of the day the city lost an extraordinary woman and a health care professional who in her last act of selflessness gave life and hope to these three strangers,” Achan said. “The light behind what happened to her is that she ended up saving three people’s lives.”
The Office of Chief Medical Examiner this week declared Rodriguez’s death a homicide. Police said detectives have not found any evidence that Rodriguez was purposely knocked down. Without evidence, police said, it is not clear what criminal charge, if any, can be filed.