New York Daily News

NYPD: Man jumped onto highway after tiff with drunk-driving galpal

- BY THOMAS TRACY, BYRON SMITH DALE W. EISINGER and LARRY McSHANE

A QUEENS COUPLE’S tragic last date left the boyfriend dead under bizarre circumstan­ces — and his girlfriend in handcuffs for drunken driving.

An ongoing argument Saturday between driver Savittre Beria-Lackhan and her exasperate­d beau Arif Hoosein led him to jump from her slow-moving Mercedes-Benz and into the path of an oncoming car, police said.

Hoosein, 30, was rushed from the Grand Central Parkway after the fatal 4 a.m. crash and died a short time later at the Long Island Jewish Medical Center, officials said.

“I don’t know what time I left, I don’t know how long I was driving before I stopped,” a sloshed Beria-Lackhan, whose blood-alcohol content was more than twice the legal limit, told cops afterward, prosecutor­s said.

“I was drinking Hennessy and ginger ale and I don’t want to answer any more questions.”

The victim was struck less than 2 miles from his Bellerose home and just three days short of his 31st birthday.

Cops offered no details on where the couple was heading, or where they went before the fatal accident.

“The family is in deep shock, grieving right now,” said the victim’s uncle Mahmoud Hussein. “We’re still trying to understand what happened. No parent is prepared to bury their child.”

Beria-Lackhan, 34, started dating Hoosein about two months ago, according to a friend of the dead man.

Cops say she was soused behind the wheel of her black 2015 luxury car as the twosome zipped through Little Neck.

Hossein, (below) after fighting with the girlfriend, finally decided to bolt the car, cops said.

A black Nissan Sentra traveling in the same direction in an adjoining lane plowed right into the victim after he exited the passenger seat, cops said.

Both Beria-Lackhan and the Sentra driver remained at the scene, police said.

The South Ozone Park woman was taken into custody and charged with driving while intoxicate­d. Her blood-alcohol content was .209, prosecutor­s said.

Beria-Lackhan, a paralegal and single mom of two kids, appeared in Queens Criminal Court wearing a beige sweater and light blue jeans with a red stain on her left thigh.

Judge Jerry Iannece ordered her held on $20,000 bond.

The 39-year-old man driving the Nissan faces no immediate charges, cops said.

Friends of the victim knew little about Beria-Lackhan. But they spoke fondly of their buddy Hoosein.

“He was the man,” said one pal at the family’s house.

“He was very helpful. Always there. Whenever he was needed by somebody, he would be there for you.

“Respectful. Loyal. Great personalit­y ... I’m still trying to figure out what happened.”

Hoosein’s uncle recalled his dead nephew as “a miracle baby” who survived after a premature birth.

Family and friends arrived in a steady stream to offer their condolence­s after the freak fatality.

“This is so painful for the parents, grandparen­ts, cousins and siblings,” said Mahmoud Hussein (left).

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