The 28-year-old Brooklyn man arrested Feb. 26 for a deadly hit-and-run more than a year ago had been out on $20,000 bail for crashing into a police car while fleeing the NYPD with a loaded gun stashed in his trunk, the Daily News has learned.
It took cops over a year to nab Christopher Seabrook, the heartless driver they say abandoned his wrecked SUV in Bushwick after crashing into a Toyota sedan in January 2024, seriously injuring three of the men inside and killing Hayden Wallace.
“All accidents are useless but this one was even more useless because [Seabrook] had so many other offenses,” said Wallace’s aunt, Kippy Perkins. “I just wish [Seabrook] wouldn’t have been out.
“I wish he wouldn’t have been on the road.”
Wallace had just moved to New York City and was settling in before the deadly crash.. He had landed a job as a gate agent for American Airlines at Kennedy Airport, traveled frequently and was riding in the Toyota with three new friends the night of the crash.
Wallace’s mother came from Texas late last month to finally face her son’s accused killer during his arraignment in Brooklyn Criminal Supreme Court.
“I just felt that I wanted to see who killed my son,” Audri Cannon said of her heartrending 24-hour visit to the city. “I want him to see what he did to me by robbing me of my son.”
Seabrook is facing 23 charges for the crash at Stockholm St. and Irving Ave., including manslaughter, leaving the scene of a fatal accident, not having a license, possessing an open container of alcohol and speeding.
The impact of the Bushwick crash sent the Toyota careening into three parked vehicles. Seabrook and his passenger abandoned the Kia and ran off, according to cops.
It wasn’t his first run in with the law.
Early on March 27, 2022, Seabrook was arguing with a man and brandishing a gun on 30th Ave. and Steinway St. in Astoria, according to a criminal complaint. A startled bystander flagged down a cop car and police approached Seabrook, who fled in a red Ford, leading cops on a chase as he blew through multiple red lights and other motorists swerved out of his way, prosecutors say.
Seabrook slammed into a police car 15 minutes later about one-and-a-half miles away on Ditmars Blvd. near 23rd St., prosecutors say. He ditched his damaged Ford and ran off but was arrested that day, according to court papers.
Police searched Seabrook’s abandoned vehicle and found a loaded 9 mm Smith & Wesson pistol, a fake Pennsylvania driver’s license and three phony credit cards, according to prosecutors.
Eight months after the Bushwick crash, as the police investigation into the deadly accident continued and Seabrook was awaiting trial for the Astoria case, he popped up driving a U-Haul stolen from New York in Carlisle, Penn. when he was stopped by a state trooper on Aug. 24, authorities say.
While telling the trooper he didn’t know who rented the U-Haul and didn’t know where he was headed, Seabrook suddenly ran away, according to court papers.
Once captured and placed in the back of the trooper’s car, Seabrook maneuvered his cuffed hands in front of him, reached into the front of the vehicle, opened the window and then reached out the window to open the car door from the outside.
“Seabrook then closed the door and remained in the vehicle due to another trooper approaching him,” the complaint says.
Seabrook was being held on $49,000 bail in Pennsylvania when he was extradited to Queens on Feb. 21 to face trial there. Five days later he was finally charged in the Jan. 8, 2024, Brooklyn crash that killed Wallace.
Cannon, who praised the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office and NYPD detectives for the work they have done on the case, is focused on getting justice and making sure her son is remembered.
“Justice is all I have and I think they’re working really hard for it,” said the heartbroken mom.
“I even did a labor of love and made a photo journal and sent it to the Assistant District Attorney. I said ‘You’re defending my son but you don’t know who he is…I did a journal from birth til death.”
Despite having a job, a place to live and a routine he enjoyed, Wallace was still looking for his place in New York City’s LGBTQ community. On the night he was killed, he seemed to be finding it.
“He had texted [his best friend] that night saying, ‘I’m having such a good time and I met some new people,’” his aunt said after the crash. “He hadn’t met that many people in the gay community so he was super excited. And he said he had a great night.”
“He was just such an amazing person, Hayden was,” Perkins said last week. “Everybody misses him. He made every family event complete. We really really miss him.”
A police source said Seabrook was finally linked to the fatal Brooklyn hit-and-run with the inadvertent help of his child.
The Kia he abandoned was purchased fraudulently in Pennsylvania so there was no registered user for the vehicle. But when a search warrant allowed cops to scour inside the car, a child’s school ID was found. The NYPD were able to connect the child with Seabrook through a database that contains information from police responses to domestic violence calls, the source said.
Seabrook’s brother told The News he was shocked that the suspect, a father of two, was being charged with causing Wallace’s death.
“My brother is a good and kind man,“ said Nicholas Seabrook, 27, at the home they share with their mother in East New York. “He’s a good father and family man.”
Christopher Seabrook makes music under the name Crippy Gleece, his brother said.
“My brother has done book bag and coat and shoe drives,” said the brother. “He’s known and loved in the community.”
“I was crying when I heard he was charged with manslaughter. That’s not him,” he added. “It’s crazy.”
“My client’s pled not guilty and when the case eventually goes to trial I feel confident that he will prevail,” lawyer Joseph Amsel, who is representing Seabrook in the Queens case, told the Daily News.
The lawyer representing Seabrook in the fatal hit-and-run case did not return a phone call seeking comment.
Seabrook is being held without bail on Rikers Island.
Wallace’s mother is now deciding how she wants to mark her son’s legacy.
“I’m working on how Hayden should be remembered. I asked his best friend, ‘If Hayden had a lot of money what would he do with it? [The friend] said AIDS research. He was very passionate about politics and about the gay community.”
Cannon, although devastated and missing her son every day, has stopped trying to look for answers.
“I never ask why anymore.”
With John Annese