Arrest Made 8 Months After 'All That' Star Kianna Underwood's Death

Police charged 72-year-old Michael Griffiths with leaving the scene in the January hit-and-run that killed former Nickelodeon actress Kianna Underwood in Brooklyn.

More than eight months after former Nickelodeon actress Kianna Underwood was killed, the NYPD has made an arrest in her death. Underwood, 33, was struck by two vehicles while crossing a Brownsville intersection on the morning of January 16 and pronounced dead at the scene.

While she lay in the street, a black-and-gray sedan then hit her and, per Complex, allegedly dragged her roughly two blocks before she was found near Osborn Street and Pitkin Avenue. Surveillance footage captured the sequence, and police said both drivers left the scene without rendering aid.

What makes the arrest striking is that Griffiths was not a stranger to the story. Complex reports that he spoke to the New York Daily News in late January, saying he hit "something," pulled over, watched a second car drag the person, then drove off to take medication because he felt faint — insisting, "I did nothing wrong." Complex also reports his car had accumulated 41 violations, 25 of them for speeding. He was arraigned Tuesday, pleaded not guilty, and was released on his own recognizance, per Complex.

Underwood was a child performer beloved by a generation of Nickelodeon viewers. She voiced Fuchsia Glover on Nick Jr.'s 'Little Bill' from 1999 to 2004, appeared in seven episodes of the sketch comedy 'All That' in 2005 — her last credited role — and spent a year on the first national tour of 'Hairspray' as Little Inez. She made her first film appearance at age 6 in 1999's 'The 24 Hour Woman.' In the years before her death, Complex reports she had been experiencing homelessness and was a familiar presence on the same Brownsville blocks where she was struck.

The case's emotional weight was captured in a since-deleted Facebook post from Underwood's father, quoted by Yahoo News UK and UNILAD, in which he described once stopping to help an injured fox on a dangerous road and asked whether anyone showed his daughter "that same compassion, as someone ran her over like roadkill." He wondered whether anyone comforted her as she lay dying in the street. Her former 'All That' castmate Angelique Bates had earlier called for a plan to ensure Underwood received proper assistance, per Complex.

Griffiths is due back in court on October 27, according to Complex, as prosecutors prepare the case and review forensic collision reports. UNILAD reported that formal charges were pending as of Wednesday while investigators' months-long canvass — reviewing traffic and business surveillance footage and processing vehicle debris — finally yielded the suspect. For a case that sat publicly cold for eight months, the next hearing will show whether the charges of leaving the scene resulting in death and with injury hold, and whether a second driver will ever face accountability.