Police nab susp in Qns. hit & run

Cops busted a suspect Monday in the Queens hit-and-run death of a 29year-old Tribeca man who devastated friends and family said was “full of life” and made everyone around him happy.

Niklas Ahern, 29, was mowed down by a silver four-door sedan as he crossed a Queens street just before 5:30 p.m. Sunday.

The sedan’s driver, Irving Duran, sped away from the crash site at the intersection of Continental Ave. at Exeter St. in Forest Hills Gardens, police said.

Police caught up with Duran, 28, at his Ridgewood home Monday night, and charged him with leaving the scene of a fatal crash.

Duran’s wife, Maria, told the Daily News in a phone interview that she and her husband fled because they were scared.

“No matter what I say or how it happen, it’s not going to change the fact, what’s done is done, no matter what I say,” she said. “I mean, we were scared. Who wouldn’t be scared?” Moments later, she called back, and denied she was in the car with her husband at all.

Duran’s younger brother, Christian — who was not in the car — told The News that Duran didn’t realize he’d hit anyone.

“First he thought it was a branch that hit his car, and then his wife said it was a person, so he was scared,” said Christian, 19. “I don’t really think it’s his fault. It was dark, the guy was jaywalking …. He was scared,” Christian Duran said. “Once you’re in that shocking [situation], you’ve got to keep going.”

Friends of Ahern (photo) remembered him fondly.

“He was one of those people, if you were in a bad mood and you saw him, he’d smile and say, ‘Hey how you doing?’ And it just takes you out of your bad mood,” said childhood pal Hunter Lewis Bell.