PLATE-TAKER CHARGED
Cops bust driver accused of running as passenger died in S.I.
Cops have arrested the BMW driver accused of leaving his passenger to die as he removed his the wrecked car’s license plates and ran off from the wreck after a massive crash near the Staten Island Expressway.
Ahmad Omar was put on supervised release at arraignment without any requirement he post bail, the Staten Island DA’s office said Friday. The DA’s office had wanted $50,000 bail.
Criminal Court Judge John McPadden also ordered that Omar, 25, not drive or use his passport until the case is over, court officials said.
Omar was charged with leaving the scene of a fatal collision and tampering with physical evidence for the Monday night wreck that killed back-seat passenger Usman Chughtai and injured another passenger.
Omar was speeding when he veered his BMW onto the sidewalk near Goethals Road North and Jules Drive in Graniteville about 10:15 p.m., slamming into a light pole and fire hydrant before spinning out of control and obliterating a fence and other residential property, authorities said.
Chughtai died after he was thrown from the vehicle and landed on the asphalt, said police. A 23-year-old man sitting in the front passenger seat was also hurt. He was taken to Richmond University Medical Center in stable condition.
Omar managed to get out of the destroyed BMW. Witnesses saw him take the license plates off the vehicle before he ran off on foot.
“He had taken them off,” a 34-year-old resident who wished not to be named told the Daily News Tuesday. “As soon as I asked him, ‘Listen, what’s your license number?’ he just jetted off.”
Cops found Omar in another part of the borough, and he was criminally charged Thursday.
At arraignment, prosecutors noted that the top count in the case, leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death, is bail eligible and asked that McPadden order Omar held on $50,000. But the judge instead imposed supervised release and sent him home.
Chughtai’s family declined to comment on his death when reached.
A neighbor said Omar has a toddler-age daughter, and called him an “amazing kid.”
Omar “shovels for you when there’s snow storms. Moves the trash cans for you,” said the neighbor, who said his first name is Justice and that he’s 43 years old.
“Great kid. Great family. He helps out,” Justice said, adding that the allegations against Omar sound “totally out of character.”