NEW YORK —The trial of a Brooklyn cop accused of running down a family with his minivan last August ended where it first began Wednesday as jurors visited the site of the deadly collision.

Shuttled by bus to the accident scene, jurors walked for several minutes around the busy intersection while dozens of police officers held traffic at bay. Members of the panel did not speak, but took notes of their observations.

Their 15-minute tour began as jurors took turns climbing the stoop where prosecution witness Rosa Citron testified she watched as the former NYPD officer, Joseph Gray, 41, ran a red light and slammed his car into a pregnant Maria Herrera, 23, her sister, Dilcia Pena, 16, and Maria's son, Andy, 4. All three died from their injuries. A baby boy was delivered by emergency Caesarean section to Maria, but the infant also died, on the following day.

Victims' memorial

Gray, who has been out on bail since the Aug. 4, 2001, crash and has resigned from the force, faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted of four manslaughter charges. The case drew nationwide attention and focused attention on the problem of police officers and alcohol abuse.

On Wednesday afternoon, the jurors also viewed the spot where a defense witness, Israel Perez, a 73-year-old taxicab driver, says he saw the victims dodge out in front of Gray's 1996 Ford Windstar. The defense argues that while Gray drank a dozen beers that evening, he was not impaired, and that the accident was unavoidable.

Both sides will deliver closing arguments on Thursday. The prosecution is expected to argue that the officer was drunk, speeding and running a red light when he crash into the young family. The officer admits he spent the day drinking in the parking lot of the 72nd Precinct stationhouse, where he worked, and later, at a nearby strip club.

Feet away from the intersection in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn where he lost his family, Victor Herrera placed a bouquet of red roses and yellow daisies at a makeshift memorial shortly before the jury arrived. He carefully arranged stuffed animals and votive candles that had been upended, while his mother-in-law, Maria Altagracia Pena, watched from outside a ring of yellow crime scene tape.

"It's hard for me to be here," Herrera explained to reporters. "It's hard for me to go to court everyday. I want justice to be done."

Herrera, who has attended each of the eight days of the trial, said he visited the memorial this morning at seven, before court, and also made a trip to the nearby Greenwood Cemetery, where his family is buried.

Defense lawyer Harold Levy closed his case today, and yesterday offered jurors only the testimony of Gray himself and the taxi driver's account of the crash. Perez, who had difficulty maintaining his composure on the stand Tuesday, said he saw the victims running across from the opposite side of the street and into the path of Gray's car.

The prosecution, however, contends that the victims were crossing from the same side of the two-way street, and that they had the right-of-way when the collision occurred at 46th Street and Third Avenue.

At the scene on Wednesday, Herrera discounted Perez's testimony, pointing to the Casa de Oracion, a storefront church on the other side of Third Avenue near where Perez says he was standing.

"If he said he saw the accident from a half a block away and he's an old man, then why couldn't Gray see anything?" Herrera asked.