Driver Mahbub Ali charged with manslaughter, DUI after car jumps curb in Gramercy
NEW YORK -- It was a terrifying scenario that changed some lives and it happened while people were doing what what many of us do every day -- walking down the street.
CBS2 has new information about the person killed and those injured when police say a man drove onto a busy sidewalk in Gramercy.
Police say the driver was intoxicated when he set off a tragic chain-reaction crash that killed a man trying to cross the street and injured several others, two of whom friends say were standing on the sidewalk to access free Wi-Fi from a link hub.
"It was just screaming and commotion, people running out from stores. It was horrific," one witness said.
New video shows the devastation in Gramercy at around 7:30 p.m. on Sunday.
The driver of a mangled Hyundai Sonata has been identified as 26-year-old Mahbub Ali of Astoria, Queens.
One man didn't want to give his name, but said he heard every second of the violent crash at 21st Street and Third Avenue.
"It was ugly, really bad, people lying on the sidewalk. Car smashed into the electric charger hub. It was a disaster," the man said. "People were on the floor. It was like a triage center."
The first victim was a 23-year-old man in the crosswalk who was struck and killed. Police say Ali then hit an 18-year-old man on an e-bike before mounting the sidewalk and crashing into a 21-year-old man and a 26-year-old woman, leaving her in critical condition. Friends of the man and woman hit on the sidewalk told CBS2 they are asylum seekers staying at a nearby migrant shelter.
"I just saw two bodies on the ground and one was responsive and the other, just no," Calem said. "There were people crying on the corner, so that was also hard to see."
Police sources tell CBS2 officials are having trouble identifying the body of the 23-year-old man killed to notify his family.
Ali was arrested on charges of manslaughter, vehicular manslaughter, DUI, and assault.