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The hit-and-run minivan driver who allegedly plowed into a married couple from Germany — killing and nearly decapitating the woman and seriously injuring her husband — has been charged in the terrifying Midtown crash, cops said Thursday.
Mohammed Abouzaid, 40, of the Bronx, was charged with failure to yield to a pedestrian and leaving the scene of an accident without reporting, and was awaiting arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court.
“I did not hit anybody,” Abouzaid, who has no prior arrests, allegedly told authorities when he was picked up, according to cops and sources.
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Mohammed Abouzaid is arraigned with Hit&Run of German couple on 5th. Ave. & 40th.st.
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Mohammed Abouzaid, 40, was charged in connection to the horrific incident. Peter Gerber
Police said Alexandra Sabine Lewalter Maric, 50, of Hamburg, was killed when a 2001 Toyota Sienna driver backed up at a high rate of speed at East 40th Street and Fifth Avenue around 2:40 p.m. Wednesday.
As the driver — who was facing east on East 40th Street, blocking the intersection — backed up, he pinned the husband and wife between his car and a box truck stopped at the light, according to the sources.
The woman was nearly decapitated on impact and pronounced dead, the sources said.
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A German tourist was killed in the hit-and-run and her husband was seriously injured. Matthew McDermott
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Abouzaid was charged with failure to yield to a pedestrian and leaving the scene of an accident. Matthew McDermott
Her 55-year-old husband — who was celebrating his birthday — suffered a fractured skull but was being treated at Bellevue Hospital in stable condition, sources said.
Graphic videos obtained by The Post show first responders tending to the motionless, bloodied woman on the ground in front of the truck, checking her pulse and ultimately realizing her head was nearly detached.
Abouzaid allegedly fled in the minivan — which had a vanity plate reading “TIMES SQUARE” and a Mississippi tag — only to be picked up by one of the NYPD’s new Quality of Life teams an hour later at West 38th Street and Eighth Avenue, authorities and sources said.
Mohammed Abouzaid, 40, of the Bronx, was charged with failure to yield to a pedestrian and leaving the scene of an accident without reporting, and was awaiting arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court.
“I did not hit anybody,” Abouzaid, who has no prior arrests, allegedly told authorities when he was picked up, according to cops and sources.
4 Mohammed Abouzaid is arraigned with Hit&Run of German couple on 5th. Ave. & 40th.st.
4 Mohammed Abouzaid, 40, was charged in connection to the horrific incident. Peter Gerber
Police said Alexandra Sabine Lewalter Maric, 50, of Hamburg, was killed when a 2001 Toyota Sienna driver backed up at a high rate of speed at East 40th Street and Fifth Avenue around 2:40 p.m. Wednesday.
As the driver — who was facing east on East 40th Street, blocking the intersection — backed up, he pinned the husband and wife between his car and a box truck stopped at the light, according to the sources.
The woman was nearly decapitated on impact and pronounced dead, the sources said.
4 A German tourist was killed in the hit-and-run and her husband was seriously injured. Matthew McDermott
4 Abouzaid was charged with failure to yield to a pedestrian and leaving the scene of an accident. Matthew McDermott
Her 55-year-old husband — who was celebrating his birthday — suffered a fractured skull but was being treated at Bellevue Hospital in stable condition, sources said.
Graphic videos obtained by The Post show first responders tending to the motionless, bloodied woman on the ground in front of the truck, checking her pulse and ultimately realizing her head was nearly detached.
Abouzaid allegedly fled in the minivan — which had a vanity plate reading “TIMES SQUARE” and a Mississippi tag — only to be picked up by one of the NYPD’s new Quality of Life teams an hour later at West 38th Street and Eighth Avenue, authorities and sources said.
