1 dead as car rager stabs 2, mows down crowd: cops
A FIGHT OVER a parking spot outside a Queens hookah lounge turned deadly Sunday when a driver flew into a blind rage, stabbing two foes before mowing down six people — killing one, authorities said.
Police took the driver into custody hours later, after he showed up at a hospital with cuts on his hands. He’s suspected of using his white Hyundai Sonata to run down 23-year-old Richardo Chattergoon after the fracas outside XS NYC at 129th St. and Liberty Ave. in South Ozone Park, police said.
The suspect, a 22-year-old Far Rockaway man, was fighting with Chattergoon and another man who had been in a BMW before plunging a knife into both men’s torsos, police said.
Alarmed loungegoers who were standing outside and witnessed the 5 a.m. attack outside the hotspot tried to confront the suspect and chased after him. That’s when he jumped back into his car, drove over the curb and plowed his car into six people — including Chattergoon, who died at the scene, officials said.
“That’s my son, that’s my son,” Sundar Chattergoon, wailed when he arrived at the scene of the senseless bloodbath.
Deputy Chief David Barrere said the initial beef was over a parking space.
“This parking dispute escalated, which resulted in the death of an individual and serious physical injuries to several others,” Barrere said. The survivors, including a 29-year-old Brooklyn man who was stabbed and run over, were rushed to Jamaica Hospital in critical condition. The others hit by the car were three men and a woman, all in their 20s. They suffered an assortment of head, leg and pelvis injuries.
A video of the mayhem, obtained exclusively by the Daily News, shows the Sonata flying onto the sidewalk. About five seconds later, a silver Nissan SUV can be seen doing a U-turn on Liberty Ave. and tearing onto the sidewalk behind the Sonata, in apparent pursuit of the first car.
Before the cars jumped the sidewalk, a passing motorist spotted a woman trying to hold back a member of the brawling crowd.
“He was going after someone. That’s why the girl was holding him back,” said witness Ozzie Rogers, who said he pulled over to watch the melee. The angry man ultimately broke free of the woman’s hold.
“The girl is yelling ‘Stop, stop. No, no,’ when this car just comes from nowhere and hits the whole group,” Rogers said. “The bodies went flying. The car was going really fast, at least 50 miles per hour on the sidewalk.”
Another witness saw the driver slam into a parked car before careening toward the victims.
“You could hear the car hitting the bodies,” the second witness said.