Elderly minister hit, killed by police car

New York City police are investigating the death of an elderly Brooklyn minister who was struck and killed by a marked police vehicle Friday, authorities said.

Theauther Love had been out for his regular early-morning stroll when the NYPD vehicle, driven by a traffic enforcement agent, hit him on Eastern Parkway near Dean and Bergen streets, his family and authorities said Saturday.

Love, 87, was declared dead on arrival at Brookdale hospital, police said.

"He walks every morning. He has his own little exercise routine. That's how he stays in great shape -- much better shape than people half his age," said Love's grandson, Quaun Love, 28.

The NYPD said in a statement that the department doesn't suspect criminality in the 7:20 a.m. crash. The investigation was incomplete Saturday night.

Theauther Love was the family patriarch -- a World War II veteran, a brother, a father, a grandfather, a great-grandfather, and the beloved minister of New Frontier Baptist Church, relatives said.

At the family's St. Marks Avenue home, members consoled Love's wife, Annie Love, 82. The couple would have celebrated their 61st wedding anniversary next month.

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"There's a lot of family over. We're keeping her in pretty high spirits. We're trying to do what we can. We don't want her to get lonely because she's up in age as well," said Quaun Love, who lives at the home.

He said she's been crying a lot. "She kept saying that her husband wasn't coming home."

Family members are now making funeral arrangements.

"We're just trying to get settled and deal with this grieving as a unit right now," Quaun Love said. "It's an emotional time."