leaving the scene of an accident and failure to yield<\/a>\u00a0to a pedestrian \u2014 with a judge shockingly setting bail at $25,000.<\/p>\nThe pair loved cruising and were in New York City to celebrate their anniversary after a Virgin cruise. Instagram\/Udo<\/p>\n
Prosecutors said the reckless driver only had a learners\u2019 permit when he backed up a\u00a02001 Toyota Sienna that he\u2019d been living in \u201cat a high rate of speed\u201d around 2:40 p.m. at the\u00a0intersection of East 40th Street and Fifth Avenue.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s when he struck the couple at the crosswalk, pinning the woman under his vehicle, and also hit a box truck stopped at the light, according to sources and a criminal complaint.<\/p>\n
Both pedestrians were knocked to the ground, leaving the woman nearly decapitated. She was pronounced dead while her husband was sent to Bellevue Hospital, where doctors reattached a severed finger and treated a head wound that required stitches. He was in stable condition.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Abouzaid allegedly sped off in the minivan \u2014 which had a vanity plate reading \u201cTIMES SQUARE\u201d and a Mississippi tag \u2014 but was arrested nearby about an hour after the horrific crash, authorities and sources said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was living out of the car he was driving, that caused this accident, specifically killing one person, and the other hospitalized with a skull fracture. The defendant fled the scene after he hit a pedestrian,\u201d\u00a0Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Courtenay Cullen told Judge Janet McDonnell.<\/p>\n
Mohammed Abouzaid is arraigned with the hit-and-run of the German couple on 5th. Ave. & 40th St. Steven Hirsch<\/p>\n
Public defender\u00a0\u00a0Eric Williams\u00a0argued\u00a0Abouzaid had \u201cspecific reasons\u201d for driving off after the crash, including because \u201che was scared, he panicked, he doesn\u2019t have insurance.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was caught at a box in an intersection, what he attempted to do was back up, he attempted to back up, and he hit a truck as he was trying to back up. Pedestrians were moving between his car and the truck. He doesn\u2019t have insurance,\u201d he said, asking the judge not to lock his client up.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Williams\u00a0said his client was\u00a0a \u201clocal resident\u201d living in the US for about two years, but it was unclear if he was in the country legally.<\/p>\n
Mohammed Abouzaid, 40, was charged in connection to the horrific incident. Peter Gerber<\/p>\n
The judge, who ackowledged the driver had been \u201creckless,\u201d ordered him held on $25,000 cash bail or a $75,000 bond.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to point out that he did show signs of not exercising due care,\u201d\u00a0\u00a0McDonnell\u00a0\u00a0said. \u201cHe must have known that he crashed into a truck, and he did drive off at a high rate of speed in a crowded intersection, which can be defined as reckless, killing someone.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Asked if the charges could be upgraded, a\u00a0rep for the Manhattan District Attorney\u2019s Office would only say that \u201cthe investigation is still ongoing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lewalter Maric, from the German town of Selb, was a music lover from a young age, and married her husband on Sept. 21, 2002, with the couple moving to Hamburg,\u00a0Meixner\u00a0said.<\/p>\n
Alexandra Lewalter was described my friends as joyful. Facebook\/Alexandra Lewalter<\/p>\n
The last time he saw her was when they attended a concert for the band \u201cThe Kills\u201d together last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to their LinkedIn profiles, Lewalter Maric worked at Apple Retail Germany for the past 14 years, and her husband was a journalist for the outlet Bild, writing about technology and electronics.<\/p>\n
The German consulate said it was aware of the tragedy and was assisting the NYPD as needed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe injured person is being looked after by the consulate general,\u201d they said in a statement. \u201cPlease understand that, for reasons of privacy protection of those affected and their relatives, we are generally unable to comment on the details.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The German tourist killed in a grisly hit-and-run in Midtown had been in New York City with her…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":255552,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,11307,5417,5249,5248,17833,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,5268,67,586,132,5230,68,1154,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-255551","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-arrests","10":"tag-hit-and-run","11":"tag-manhattan","12":"tag-metro","13":"tag-midtown","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-city","16":"tag-newyork","17":"tag-newyorkcity","18":"tag-ny","19":"tag-nyc","20":"tag-tourists","21":"tag-united-states","22":"tag-united-states-of-america","23":"tag-unitedstates","24":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","25":"tag-us","26":"tag-us-news","27":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115269328247405022","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255551\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}