Suspect Charged In Hit-And-Run That Killed Photographer In Morningside Heights
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A Bronx man was arrested and charged Thursday in a hit-and-run accident that left a Brooklyn photographer dead in Morningside Heights this past New Year's Eve.
Prezidor Porbeni, 28, of the Bronx, was charged with leaving the scene of an accident resulted in death, police said.
Police were called around 6:10 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 31, to 113th Street and Amsterdam Avenue after Guler Ugur-Yaacobi, 44, was struck by the sport-utility vehicle that Porbeni was allegedly driving north on Amsterdam Avenue.
Ugur-Yaacobi had just left her studio at the time.
Doctors could not save Ugur-Yaacobi, and she was pronounced dead at St. Luke's Hospital, police said.
After the accident, Ugur-Yaacobi's brother Hasan Ugur said he will never forgive the driver, and her nephews said they're devastated over losing such a beautiful and inspiring soul.
"My dream was one day to work here, but now everything here remembers me of my aunt and that's very terrible," nephew Sercan Zaman said this past weekend.
Friend Toby Turkel said she and Ugur-Yaacobi were set to go to a concert at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine on the night she died.
Turkel was saving seats in the church when Ugur-Yaacobi called her to say she found a parking spot a block away. The SUV struck her as she walked to the cathedral, CBS2's Hazel Sanchez reported.
"Everybody was crying. Everybody was shocked when we got the news. She was such a powerful person that she didn't deserve this death," said one relative.
Court information for Pormeni was not immediately available.
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