BROOKLYN, N.Y. (PIX11) – Jennifer Patino, a 22-year-old Brooklyn woman who was dragged by her husband’s car late last month, died at a hospital Sunday shortly before her organs were harvested for donation, her family told PIX11 News on Monday.
“My parents decided it would be a good thing to do,” Patino’s older sister, Mayra, said of the organ donations.
Patino’s 20-year-old husband, Jeffrie Llapa, was charged with reckless endangerment last week, after his wife suffered severe brain injuries, internal bleeding, and a broken pelvis in the Jan. 29 incident. Surveillance footage from the couple’s apartment building in Williamsburg showed Patino following her husband out of the building just after midnight.
The family said witnesses told them the couple argued near a car before Patino tried to stop her husband from driving away while holding onto the handle of his car door.
Mayra Patino said one witness didn’t see the impact before her sister ended up on the ground but heard the young woman scream. Another witness told the family Patino bounced off another car before hitting the ground.
Police from the 90th Precinct responded to the scene and Patino’s husband of six months was arrested. But Llapa was released after making an appearance in court. It’s unclear whether charges will be upgraded now that Patino has died.
Patino was the middle child of Ecuadorian immigrants who live on Long Island. Her sister said she recently started working at a law firm in Manhattan.
Mayra Patino appealed for more people to come forward with information about what they saw — or possibly recorded — the night her sister died.
“One video captures almost everything,” Mayra Patino said. “But then it cuts off.”
Patino’s family has launched a GoFundMe to help pay for funeral costs.