New York’s Jewish community is still reeling after a young Williamsburg couple and their unborn child were killed early Sunday morning by a speeding car allegedly driven by a Bronx resident with a lengthy list of serious run-ins with the law.
While it is unknown if alcohol played a part in the deadly crash, 44-year-old suspect Julio Acevedo had been released on a charge of driving under the influence just two weeks ago after a judge denied the prosecutor’s request for bail to be set at $5,000, according to reports on CBS News.
Acevedo served a 10-year prison term after being convicted in 1987 for manslaughter, drugs, and robbery and was sent back to prison in 1998 for a parole violation, finally being released in 1999.
Acevedo met with a lawyer on Tuesday prior to turning himself in to police. In a phone conversation with The Daily News, Acevedo said, “My heart goes out to them. I didn’t know they died until I saw the news.”
According to the Associated Press, Acevedo claims he was attempting to flee a gunman when he sped down the streets of Williamsburg in the early morning hours on March 3.
“I was scared. I just got shot at,” said Acevedo.
Police are still investigating how Acevedo came to be driving a borrowed 2010 BMW registered to Takia Walker, who was arrested on insurance fraud charges on Sunday morning.
Police estimate that Acevedo was driving at least 60 miles per hour on Kent Avenue when he allegedly slammed into the livery cab at the corner of Wilson Street at 12:30 a.m. Nachman Glauber and his wife Raizy, pregnant with their first child, were passengers in the 2008 Toyota Camry and on their way to the hospital after Mrs. Glauber, who was in her seventh month, claimed to be feeling unwell. It is unknown if the driver of the livery cab, who sustained only minor injuries in the accident, had stopped for the stop sign at the intersection.
Nachman Glauber, a 21-year-old yeshiva student, was pinned to the car by the impact of the crash and later died in Beth Israel Hospital. The engine of the Toyota was hurled into the backseat and 21-year-old Raizy Glauber was thrown from the vehicle, landing under a tractor-trailer that was parked nearby. She later died at Bellevue Hospital, and the premature infant, delivered by emergency cesarean section at Bellevue, died the next morning.
Both Glaubers were buried in Kiryas Joel on Sunday, with their newborn son buried next to them one day later. Local officials and community leaders are urging the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office to treat the case as a triple homicide.