{"id":995842,"date":"2026-08-12T10:02:24","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T10:02:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/995842\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T10:02:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T10:02:24","slug":"lancaster-man-charged-in-fatal-susquehanna-river-crash-arrested-in-new-york-city-police-local-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/995842\/","title":{"rendered":"Lancaster man charged in fatal Susquehanna River crash arrested in New York City: police | Local News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p dir=\"ltr\">Editor&#8217;s note: This post has been updated to clarify the day\u00a0Mikaail Fahim Cotton was arrested.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">A man charged in the <a title=\"Columbia woman killed after vehicles crash into Susquehanna River [update]\" href=\"https:\/\/lancasteronline.com\/tncms\/asset\/editorial\/af9066ae-64bc-4daa-9c24-8a9b8fe63ab9\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">late July fatal crash of two cars into the Susquehanna River<\/a> has been arrested in New York City after eight days as a fugitive, Manor Township police said.<\/p>\n<p>Mikaail Fahim Cotton, 23, of Lancaster city, was being held at the New York City&#8217;s Rikers Island jail facility after being accused of a firearms offense, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/share\/p\/1JNx2S52LB\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">a Manor Township Police Department Facebook post.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The post, which was confirmed as valid early Wednesday by Manor Township police Cpl. Rockie Tice, said efforts to extradite him were underway. Tice said he did not have details about exactly when on Tuesday Cotton was arrested, where he was caught or the nature of alleged firearms offense.<\/p>\n<p>He had been charged Aug. 3 with leaving the scene of the crash, driving on a DUI-related suspended license and failing to provide information after a crash. Police have said they also want to speak with two other people, Helmer Soto-Colon and Savahnnah McFerrin. They have not been charged.<\/p>\n<p>A neighbor who helped three people get out of the water after the crash has said they told him not to call police and then walked away on railroad tracks, police have said.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lancasteronline.com\/news\/local\/columbia-woman-killed-after-vehicles-crash-into-susquehanna-river-update\/article_af9066ae-64bc-4daa-9c24-8a9b8fe63ab9.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Saige Zink<\/a>, 20, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gofundme.com\/f\/support-for-saige-zinks-family\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">died in the crash<\/a>, which occurred after 2 a.m. July 20 near Washington Boro. Police said Cotton had been driving her blue Chrysler sedan on Charlestown Road, followed by a white BMW SUV, when the two speeding vehicles drove past a stop sign, crossed Route 441 and landed in the river. The scene is about 3 miles south of Columbia in Manor Township. The cars were found upside-down in about 5 feet of water.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>A witness told police he was approached by three \u201cmuddy\u201d people in Columbia who asked to use his cellphone to get a ride to Lancaster city, according to investigators.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, a video posted to Facebook and other social media sites appeared to show <a href=\"https:\/\/lancasteronline.com\/news\/local\/video-appears-to-show-suspect-in-susquehanna-river-crash-apologizing-for-victims-death\/article_c744ec80-98af-470a-93bf-3b8ae830bdfa.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Cotton apologizing<\/a> to Zink. Manor Township police Chief Colin Cleary said the video is part of the investigation but he did not authenticate it or say where it came from. LNP | LancasterOnline has not determined if Cotton made the video, but the Facebook account shows apparent images of Cotton, suggesting it is his or belongs to someone close to him.<\/p>\n<p>In the video, someone who appears to be Cotton mentions Zink by name, saying he did not know he went too fast and \u201cdidn\u2019t know he\u2019d lose it.\u201d He describes waking up in the water, not being able to see and feeling hopeless: \u201cthat\u2019s why I fled the scene.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m so sorry I couldn\u2019t get her out of that ride \u2026 get you out of that ride \u2026 and it\u2019s heartbreaking, and every time we close our eyes, we keep seeing her smile,\u201d he sings.<\/p>\n<p>                    <a href=\"https:\/\/lancasteronline.com\/news\/local\/video-appears-to-show-suspect-in-susquehanna-river-crash-apologizing-for-victims-death\/article_c744ec80-98af-470a-93bf-3b8ae830bdfa.html\" class=\"tnt-asset-link\" aria-label=\"Video appears to show suspect in Susquehanna River crash apologizing for victim&#039;s death\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>                &#13;<br \/>\n                        <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mP8Xw8AAoMBgDTD2qgAAAAASUVORK5CYII=\" alt=\"Video appears to show suspect in Susquehanna River crash apologizing for victim's death\" class=\"img-responsive lazyload full white\" width=\"1656\" height=\"1251\" data- data-\/><br \/>\n                <\/a><\/p>\n<p>                    <a href=\"https:\/\/lancasteronline.com\/news\/local\/lancaster-city-man-charged-with-leaving-scene-of-crash-that-killed-columbia-woman-update\/article_a5af4123-6d85-4e0b-a300-f8c5565498f0.html\" class=\"tnt-asset-link\" aria-label=\"Lancaster city man charged with leaving scene of crash that killed Columbia woman [update]\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>                <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Lancaster city man charged with leaving scene of crash that killed Columbia woman [update]\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/6a70e48c05352.image.jpg\" class=\"img-responsive  letterbox white\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"800\" height=\"1000\"\/><br \/>\n                <\/a><\/p>\n<p>                    <a href=\"https:\/\/lancasteronline.com\/news\/local\/columbia-woman-killed-after-vehicles-crash-into-susquehanna-river-update\/article_af9066ae-64bc-4daa-9c24-8a9b8fe63ab9.html\" class=\"tnt-asset-link\" aria-label=\"Columbia woman killed after vehicles crash into Susquehanna River [update]\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>                &#13;<br \/>\n                        <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mP8Xw8AAoMBgDTD2qgAAAAASUVORK5CYII=\" alt=\"Columbia woman killed after vehicles crash into Susquehanna River [update]\" class=\"img-responsive lazyload full white\" width=\"1917\" height=\"1081\" data- data-\/><br \/>\n                <\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n                <strong>Success!<\/strong> An email has been sent to <strong><\/strong> with a link to confirm list signup.\n            <\/p>\n<p>\n                <strong>Error!<\/strong> There was an error processing your request.\n            <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Editor&#8217;s note: This post has been updated to clarify the day\u00a0Mikaail Fahim Cotton was arrested. A man charged&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":995843,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,1907,11769,4219,398957,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,398824,398958,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-995842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-breaking","tag-collision","tag-crime","tag-mikaail-fahim-cotton","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-saige-zink","tag-susquehanna-river-crash","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/995842","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=995842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/995842\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/995843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=995842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=995842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=995842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}