Brooklyn Hit-and-Run Update: Julio Acevedo identified as suspect in death of expectant Brooklyn parents, NYPD says
(CBS/AP) NEW YORK - Police identified 44-year-old Julio Acevedo as the suspect being sought in the deaths of a pregnant woman and her husband whose baby died Monday after a hit-and-run in Brooklyn.
NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said Acevedo had a DWI arrest in February and was going at least 60 mph when the car slammed into the cab carrying the couple to a hospital. The speed limit is 30 mph in the area.
The newborn boy, delivered after the crash in an emergency cesarean section, died early Monday, according to Isaac Abraham, a spokesman for the family's Orthodox Jewish community.
"We in the community are demanding that the prosecutor charge the driver of BMW that caused the death of this couple and infant ... with triple homicide," Abraham said in a statement. "This coward left the scene of the accident not even bothering to check on the people of the other car."
Nachman and Raizy Glauber, both 21, were looking forward to welcoming their first child into their tight-knit community of Orthodox Jews. They were killed in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. Police initially believed the BMW driver had a passenger but now say he was alone in the vehicle.
The Glaubers were both pronounced dead at local hospitals, and the medical examiner said they died of blunt-force trauma. It's not clear if they were wearing seatbelts.
Ellen Borakove, spokeswoman for the city medical examiner's office, said the baby's death was caused by extreme prematurity due to maternal blunt force injuries. Neighbors and friends said the boy weighed only about 4 pounds when he was delivered early Sunday.
The cause of the crash remained under investigation Monday. The livery car was at a stop sign, but it was unclear if it had stopped, police said.
Raizy Glauber was reportedly not feeling well Saturday, so the Glaubers called a car service to the hospital because they didn't own a car. The Glaubers' livery cab driver, 32-year-old Pedro Delacruz, was treated for minor injuries at the hospital and was later released.
Delacruz had a current driver's license, but an application to use the Toyota as a livery cab was pending and the vehicle should not have been sent to pick up the passengers, according to the city's Taxi and Limousine Commission. Delacruz's union said he had done nothing wrong.
Meanwhile, police said the registered owner of the BMW, 29-year-old Takia Walker, who was not in the car, was charged with insurance fraud on Sunday in a scam involving the car.
A source told The Associated Press under condition of anonymity that Walker bought the car legally -- or willingly used her identification for the purchase -- then gave the car to another man. The middleman wasn't driving at the time of the accident, and had either lent or rented the car out to the driver.
Acevedo, the man believed to have been driving the BMW at the time of the crash, served about eight years in prison on a manslaughter charge in a shooting death, and violated parole once after, according to a state department of correction spokeswoman.
The Glaubers were married about a year ago and had begun a life together in Williamsburg, where Raizy Glauber grew up in a prominent Orthodox Jewish rabbinical family, relatives said.
Brooklyn is home to the largest community of ultra-Orthodox Jews outside Israel, more than 250,000. The community has strict rules governing clothing, social customs and interaction with the outside world.
Jewish law calls for burial of the dead as soon as possible, and hours after their deaths, the Glaubers were mourned by at least 1,000 people at a funeral outside the Congregation Yetev Lev D'Satmar synagogue.
Afterward, the cars carrying the bodies left and headed to Monsey, where another service was planned in Nachman Glauber's hometown.
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March 4, 2013 - Brooklyn Hit-and-Run: Newborn baby of parents killed in NYC car crash dies, report says