Man held without bail in deadly New York car crash

New York: A man suspected of fleeing the scene of a grisly New York crash that killed a pregnant woman and her husband was arrested in the neighbouring state of Pennsylvania on Wednesday after a friend arranged his surrender, and he was ordered held without bail.

Julio Acevedo walked to officers waiting in cars in a convenience store parking lot and was arrested on charges of leaving the scene of an accident, New York Police Department spokesman Paul Browne said. Acevedo said nothing to officers who took him into custody, Browne said.

Acevedo is accused of speeding down a Brooklyn street at 60 mph (early Sunday and crashing into a car carrying Nachman and Raizy Glauber. The Glaubers, both 21 years old, died Sunday, and their premature son, delivered by caesarean section, died Monday.

The surrender of Acevedo on Wednesday evening was brokered by a friend who had been in touch with police earlier in the day. The friend met officers at New York’s Grand Central Terminal and then led them to Acevedo in Bethlehem, about 128 kilometres away, police said.

Acevedo, 44, was ordered held without bail on a charge of being a fugitive from justice late Wednesday during a video hearing. A judge said Acevedo would be held overnight in Lehigh County Prison while awaiting an extradition hearing Thursday to address his return to New York, said The Express-Times newspaper.

It was unclear if Acevedo had an attorney. The friend had told police that Acevedo would surrender after consulting an attorney, but none was with him when he turned himself in, Browne said.

Acevedo told the Daily News that he was fleeing a gunman who was trying to shoot at him when his borrowed BMW slammed into a hired car carrying the couple. He told the newspaper he fled because he was worried he’d be killed. But police said there were no reports of shots fired in the area at the time of the wreck.

The tragedy unfolded shortly after midnight Saturday, when Raizy Glauber, who was seven months pregnant, decided to go to the hospital because she wasn’t feeling well, her family said. The Glaubers called a livery cab, a hired car that is arranged via telephone, not hailed off the street like a yellow cab.

The crash with the BMW reduced the livery cab to a crumpled heap, and Raizy Glauber was thrown from it. The cab’s engine ended up in the back seat. The driver of the cab was knocked unconscious.

The couple’s son weighed only about 4 pounds when he was delivered, neighbours and friends said. He died of extreme prematurity, the city medical examiner’s office said.

He was buried Monday near his parents’ graves, according to a spokesman for the Hasidic Jewish community.