EX-CON NABBED IN DEATH OF A QNS. DAD OF 2
Victim fatally flung from hood of car as he tried to stop thief
An ex-con wanted for causing the death of a Queens father trying to stop a thief from breaking into his vehicle has been arrested, police said Saturday.
Kenny Panama, 36, was busted Friday for the Nov. 15 caught-on-video incident in which Mauro Chimbay was fatally flung from the hood of the thief’s getaway car following a clash in East Elmhurst.
Chimbay, 43, was playing volleyball when he saw someone smash the rear passenger window of his Toyota Highlander, cops and witnesses said.
The victim darted across the street to confront the crook, who stole a shopping bag of items left in the vehicle on 85th St. near 25th Ave. The bandit jumped into a waiting BMW with Massachusetts plates as the driver accelerated and Chimbay leaped onto the hood in a failed and fatal effort to stop the theft, police said.
Chilling video obtained by the Daily News shows Chimbay tumbling down the street and then lying flat on his back as the BMW sped away. Local residents rushed to the aid of the mortally injured man, who later died of a massive head wound at Elmhurst Hospital Center.
The victim “was standing on the corner over there … and he finds out they were stealing from his car and he ran over,” longtime friend and eyewitness Daniel Altamirano, 58, told The News at the time. “Then he went on top of the car. It was like, so fast. He went like, ‘Whoosh!’ then he [was] bleeding so much.”
Chimbay moved to the U.S. from Ecuador about 29 years ago and lived in Woodside, Queens, his heartbroken older brother Francisco Chimbay, 46, told The News. The victim left behind two daughters. The youngest is 4 while the older daughter is in her 20s and lives in Chicago, relatives said.
“They called me and told me that he was at the court, lying on the ground,” Francisco Chimbay said in Spanish. “It was very, very difficult to see him lying on the ground. … We’re all human beings and they shouldn’t have done that, [running] the car over my brother. It’s really hard for the family, for everyone.”
Panama is believed to be the getaway driver, a police source with knowledge of the case said. Cops arrested him after conducting an extensive video canvass that led police to his Rego Park neighborhood, about 6 miles from where Chimbay was killed.
Investigators charged Panama with murder, robbery, assault, criminal mischief and possession of stolen property.
He served six years in prison following a Queens burglary and assault conviction in 2007, according to court records.
Panama’s arraignment in Queens Criminal Court was pending Saturday.