FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, October 26, 2017
Driver who Allegedly Crashed Car in Brooklyn Highway and
Left Passenger for Dead Indicted for Murder
Vehicle Exploded, Defendant Fled Scene in a Cab without Calling 911
Acting Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez today announced that a 23-year-old Brooklyn man has been indicted on depraved indifference murder, vehicular manslaughter and related counts for allegedly causing a car crash on the Gowanus Expressway and fleeing the scene with his passenger stranded inside the burning car, leaving her to die.
Acting District Attorney Gonzalez said, “This defendant’s alleged actions before and after crashing his car caused the death of a vibrant young woman who had her entire life ahead of her. He showed complete disregard for human life and for the safety of everyone using our roadways, making the very serious charges he now faces wholly appropriate.”
The Acting District Attorney identified the defendant as Saeed Ahmad, 23, of Marine Park, Brooklyn. He was arraigned today before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Neil Firetog on an indictment in which he is charged with second-degree murder (depraved indifference), second degree vehicular manslaughter, leaving the scene of an accident, driving while intoxicated and related counts. He was ordered held without bail and to return to court on January 12, 2018. The defendant faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted of the top count.
The Acting District Attorney said that, according to the investigation, on October 13, 2017 at approximately 4 a.m., the defendant was driving an Infinity sedan, returning from a night out in Manhattan with a friend, 25-year-old Harleen Grewal.
The defendant was driving in an excessive rate of speed, attempted to pass other vehicles and crashed his car into a side barrier between the Hamilton Avenue and the Prospect Expressway exits, causing it to explode and burst into flames, the evidence showed. He got out of the burning car, got into a cab and left without calling 911 or alerting anyone that the victim was still in the vehicle. She subsequently died and her remains were recovered from the scene after the fire was put out.
The defendant was arrested later that morning and tests determined that his blood alcohol level at the time of the crash was above the legal limit of .08.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Theresa Shanahan, Deputy Bureau Chief of the District Attorney’s Blue Zone Trial Bureau, and Assistant District Attorney Joseph Mancino, also of the Blue Zone, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Robert Walsh, Bureau Chief.
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An indictment is an accusatory instrument and not proof of a defendant’s guilt.