Brooklyn Hit-and-Run: Newborn baby of parents killed in NYC car crash dies, report says

(CBS/AP) NEW YORK - A young pregnant woman and her husband were killed after a BMW slammed into their livery cab Saturday in a hit-and-run accident. The couple's newborn baby boy was delivered by emergency cesarean section, CBS New York reports, but later died.

Police were searching for the driver of a BMW and a passenger who fled after crashing into the cab in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, where the couple was headed to a hospital, said community leader Isaac Abraham.

Abraham said he was informed early Monday morning that the boy had died, according to the station. The infant only weighed about four pounds when he was delivered early Sunday morning.

"If he would have stayed alive, he would have been in memory and a little reminder to the grandparents of his parents," Abraham told CBS New York. "And now that little boy has been torn away as well."

Nachman and Raizy Glauber, both 21, were looking forward to welcoming their first child into their tight-knit community of Orthodox Jews. Raizy Glauber, who was 7 months pregnant, decided to go to the hospital Saturday because she wasn't feeling well, according to CBS New York

"She was premature -- couldn't feel the baby," said Raizy Glauber's aunt, Ruchel Bochnel. "They wanted to check it out."

Abraham said the Glaubers called a car service because they didn't own a car. He added that the engine of the livery car ended up in the backseat, where Raizy Glauber was sitting before she was ejected.

"The woman was thrown out of the car," Abraham said. "On impact, the husband was killed immediately."

Witnesses said her body landed under a parked tractor-trailer and Nachman Glauber was pinned in the car, where emergency workers had to cut off the roof to get him out.

Police said there was a stop sign at the scene, though it's unclear who had the right of way, CBS New York reports. Both the driver of the BMW and a passenger fled and were being sought.

The Glaubers were both pronounced dead at hospitals, and the medical examiner said they died of blunt-force trauma. Their son was delivered by emergency cesarean section, but had been in critical condition since his birth, according to the station.

The Glaubers' livery cab driver was treated for minor injuries at the hospital and was later released.

Meanwhile, police said the registered owner of the BMW, who was not in the car, was charged with insurance fraud. Police said 29-year-old Takia Walk was arrested Sunday. They did not have any details regarding the charge.

The Glaubers were married about a year ago and began a life together in Williamsburg, where Raizy Glauber grew up in a prominent Orthodox Jewish rabbinical family, Sara Glauber said.

Raised north of New York City in Monsey, N.Y., and part of a family that founded a line of clothing for Orthodox Jews, Nachman Glauber was studying at a rabbinical college nearby, said his cousin.

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.

As the Glauber's tight-knit community grieves together, they are begging the driver to come forward, CBS New York reports.

"Give yourself up, make the pain a little easier so that at least we'll know that you're not a coward facing charges," Abraham said. "You're already a coward for running."