HIT-RUN ‘KILLER’ BUSTED
Nabbed 6 weeks after LI teen’s death
The suspected hit-and-run driver who allegedly killed a Long Island teen last month was finally busted — as he was freed from jail on an unrelated crime.
Police nabbed Daniel Coppolo, 31, an FDNY dispatcher, as he was being released from the Nassau County Correctional Center, where he was serving time for attempted robbery, officials announced on Sunday.
Coppolo allegedly ran over 18year-old Taranjit K. Parmar in a parking lot near the Hempstead Turnpike in Levittown on Nov. 9 after clipping her Jeep with his truck.
She had exited her vehicle following the fender bender, as if to exchange insurance information, when Coppolo rammed her with his truck, officials charge.
Parmar was on the phone with her family at the time — and they heard her pleading, “Oh, no, stop!” just before she was fatally rammed, according to a Newsday account.
“Then, my wife said, the phone got disconnected. She kept saying, ‘Are you OK? Are you OK?’ ” the victim’s father, Ranjit, 50, recounted.
Parmar was rushed to Nassau University Medical Center with serious head and chest trauma and later died of her injuries.
“An innocent young woman lost her life and the future was stolen from her and her family,” Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas said at a news conference on Sunday.
Parmar, who would have turned 19 on Nov. 14, was in her second year of Adelphi University’s Honors Program, according to family lawyer Brian Gunn.
“It’s devastated the family and the youngest two girls,” Gunn said, adding that the family is “very, very relieved and they’re thankful to the Police Department and most of all thankful to the community” following Coppolo’s arrest.
Police fielded more than 50 tips over the last several weeks that helped lead them to Coppolo, Gunn said.
Coppolo was charged with manslaughter, leaving the scene of an accident with death, tampering with physical evidence and reckless endangerment.
He was arraigned on Sunday at First District Court in Hempstead, where bail was set at $1 million bond or $600,000 cash — more than what the prosecution had asked for.
“It really fit the crime — that the judge looked at this as a crime and not an automobile accident,” Gunn said.
Coppolo faces up to 26 years in prison if convicted.