Police arrest teen in fatal Midwood crash
Queens driver faces multiple charges including criminally negligent homicide
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
Police arrested a Queens
teenager Wednesday on a
laundry list of charges nearly
two weeks after he blew
through a red light in Midwood
and killed a Park Slope
cyclist.
Offi cers cuffed 18-year-old
Umar Mirza Baig on felony
charges including manslaughter,
criminally negligent homicide,
vehicular assault,
reckless endangerment, assault,
criminal solicitation,
and reckless driving, according
to police.
Cops also slapped Baig
with several moving violations,
including disobeying a
traffi c device and speeding,
authorities said.
Baig was driving southbound
on Coney Island Avenue
behind the wheel of a
Dodge Charger when he ran
a red light at Avenue L and
T-boned another car heading
east at 12:27 p.m. on Aug. 11,
according to police.
The second vehicle then violently
slammed into 52-yearold
Park Slope cyclist Jose Alzorriz,
COURIER L 12 IFE, AUG. 23-29, 2019
killing him, cops said.
Investigators quickly obtained
harrowing footage
showed both Baig running
a red light and the other
vehicle crushing Alzorriz
from multiple angles, but police
declined to immediately
charge the Queens resident,
and the decision to allow
him to walk free drew condemnation
from safe street
advocates and local politicians,
including Mayor Bill
de Blasio and local state Sen.
Andrew Gounardes.
Baig was arraigned before
Brooklyn Supreme Justice
Danny Chun at 12 p.m.
on Aug. 21, when Jennifer
Nocella, the prosecuting attorney
for the District Attorney
Eric Gonzalez’s offi ce,
requested a $100,000 bail in
bonds or $50,000 cash bail,
and that Baig hand over his
United States passport because
she said he could leave
the country to Pakistan,
where he has family.
Nocella also requested
that Baig hand over his driver’s
license, which has not
been suspended, according to
Oren Yaniv, a spokesman for
the DA’s offi ce.
Defense attorney Jeffrey
Lewisohn asked Justice Chun
to lower the bond and said the
scene depicted in the video
footage was merely a tragic
accident.
“We’ve seen the footage …
and as tragic as it is, it is still
an accident, no more, no less,”
Lewisohn told the judge.
The defense attorney also
noted that Baig had never
been arrested before and that
he was studying to get his
General Education Development
certifi cate in order to
enroll in Kingsborough Community
College in Manhattan
Beach.
Chun ultimately set the bail
bond at $50,000 and $10,000 in
cash bail and ordered Baig to
hand over his passport, but
did not ask him to surrender
his driver’s license.
Baig’s father told
Lewisohn in the courtroom
that he would be able to provide
$10,000 for the cash bail
on the same day, but the defendant
was not immediately
released, according to the
Department of Corrections
website, which listed Baig as
being held at the Brooklyn
Detention Center on Atlantic
Avenue.
Judge Chun set Baig’s next
court date for Oct. 23.
Police arrested the man who they say killed a cyclist in Midwood after running a red light on Aug. 11.
Photo by Steve Solomonson
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