DREAM CUT SHORT
Hit-run driver kills teen who wanted to be detective
A recent high school graduate with dreams of going into law enforcement had his life cut short by an unlicensed drunken hit-and-run driver in a Queens crash, police and the victim’s family said.
Edwin Puma was the youngest of his siblings, the 19-year-old “baby” of the family, his grieving sister Veronica Puma told the Daily News.
“It’s very heartbreaking. We’ve cried enough — there are no more tears,” the 34-year-old sister said. “We just try to keep the good memories we have of him alive.”
A Breathalyzer test given two hours after the crash showed accused driver Jorge Serrano had a 0.15% blood alcohol content, nearly twice the legal limit, prosecutors said. He also lacked a valid driver’s license.
Puma was riding a dirt bike on the Long Island Expressway service road in Elmhurst, Queens, when Serrano allegedly plowed his silver 2012 Chevrolet Cruze into him near Woodhaven Blvd. about 5:15 a.m. on Saturday, dragging the victim 100 yards, authorities said.
“He killed my brother and ran,” the victim’s sister said. “Maybe if he’d stopped he could have helped my brother. But he ran.”
She said her brother’s head hit a concrete barrier and the impact was so powerful his helmet “exploded.”
Cops found Puma unconscious and bleeding from the mouth. Medics took him to Long Island Jewish Forest Hills hospital, but he couldn’t be saved.
A 23-year-old friend riding an electric scooter with him was also struck and suffered a broken left leg.
Cops found Serrano, 30, parked 2 miles away, partly on the curb and partly in the middle of a crosswalk, at Maspeth Ave. and 61st St. in Maspeth, prosecutors said.
He admitted to officers that he had three beers and two shots at a bar in Astoria in the hours before the crash, according to the criminal complaint.
Puma, who had a 30-year-old brother in addition to his sister, recently graduated from the High School for Health Professions & Human Services in Manhattan and was planning to start classes at LaGuardia Community College in this fall, his family said. He lived with his family in Bushwick, Brooklyn.
“He wanted to go into law enforcement. He wanted to be a detective,” his sister said.
She showed off a picture of him holding up her pet Chihuahua.
“He loved holding my dog,” she said. “He was loved by so many.”
She got a call Saturday morning from an NYPD detective, but couldn’t believe her youngest brother was dead.
“I thought I was being pranked,” she said. Serrano, who lives in Torrington, Conn., according to cops, was arraigned in Queens Criminal Court on Saturday night on charges including vehicular manslaughter, leaving the scene of a fatal accident and drunken driving.
He is being held at Rikers Island on $50,000 bail.