Suspect in Hit-and-Run Accident That Killed Parents, Baby, Has Recent DWI Arrest
The baby died early today, according to a community leader.
March 4, 2013— -- The suspect identified today in a hit-and-run accident that killed a young couple and their baby was arrested on a charge of driving while intoxicated last month, New York police said.
The parents were killed in the Sunday-morning crash, and the unborn baby, who was delivered by surgery in an attempt to save its life, died last night.
The suspect, 44-year-old Julio Acevedo, is still at large, said the New York Police Department. Police said he was driving the BMW that smashed into a livery cab carrying the expectant parents to the hospital early Sunday. When they traced his identity, they said they found he also served 10 years in prison on a 1989 manslaughter conviction.
Nachman and Raizy Glauber, both 21, were killed early Sunday morning in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, a tight-knit neighborhood made up largely of Orthodox Jews. Emergency workers at the scene of the accident managed to rush Raizy Glauber to a nearby hospital where doctors performed a Cesarean section to deliver the baby, according to WABC-TV.
Isaac Abraham, a community leader in Brooklyn and a neighbor of the dead couple, confirmed the death of the baby this morning. The baby died from injuries overnight at New York's Bellevue Hospital. The baby, who weighed about 3 pounds, sustained brain and other internal injuries, Abraham said.
Police are searching for Acevedo, the suspected driver of the BMW, and a female passenger, who fled on foot after the accident.
Police have charged a woman who had co-signed the vehicle's lease with insurance fraud.
The woman has been charged with allowing a third party to use the vehicle without notifying the insurance company.
Glauber, who was six months pregnant with the couple's first child, was not feeling well Saturday night. Her husband called a car service and they were en route to the hospital when the accident occurred after midnight Sunday morning.
The engine of the livery car ended up in the backseat, where the pregnant woman was sitting before the crash, Abraham told WABC-TV. Abraham said he lives two blocks from where the crash happened.
Raizy Glauber's body was found under a tractor-trailer. Nachman Glauber was pinned in the car, and emergency workers had to cut off the roof to get him out, witnesses told The Associated Press. Both were pronounced dead at the hospital.
The driver of the livery cab, Pedro Nunez Delacruz, was also taken to the hospital and was released after being treated for minor injuries.
"I feel very sorry for that beautiful family," Delacruz told WABC-TV.
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, many with anger toward the two people in the BMW.
"Give yourself up. Make the pain a little easier, and at least we'll know you're not a coward," Abraham said.
A succession of men and women delivered eulogies in Yiddish, sobbing as they spoke into a microphone about the young couple.
"I will never forget you, my daughter," said Yitzchok Silberstein, Raizy Glauber's father, according to WABC.
The Glaubers were married about a year ago, according to friends and family.
"Just two amazing people, two lovely people," Nachman Glauber's cousin Sarah Gluck told WABC. "We lost two lovely people."