An unlicensed drunk driver charged with murder for intentionally crashing his SUV into a teen girl on a Queens sidewalk had moments earlier attempted to solicit her and her mother for prostitution, prosecutors say.
Edwin Cruz Gomez, 38, was ordered held without bail Sunday night after he was arraigned on a raft of charges, including murder, attempted murder, leaving the scene of a fatal crash and DWI. His blood alcohol level was .137, nearly twice legal limit, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said.
Obtained by Daily News
Crash victim Jhoanny Gomez-Alvarez, 16. (Obtained by Daily News)
He allegedly killed 16-year-old Jhoanny Gomez-Alvarez in a fit of anger just before 4:15 a.m. Saturday, driving his 6,000-pound Chevrolet Suburban onto the sidewalk at Roosevelt Ave. and Benham in Jackson Heights and striking the teen and her 32-year-old mother.
Katz said the suspect and his pals were hanging out in front of Prima Donna restaurant when he see the teen and her mother, “offering them both money for sexual acts.”
Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News
Police investigate the crash scene on Roosevelt Ave. on Sunday. (Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News)
The teen’s boyfriend and stepfather stepped in at that point, Katz said, and the confrontation got physical before bystanders stepped in to break things up.
But Cruz Gomez wasn’t through. He jumped into his SUV, vaulted the sidewalk and “took aim at the group of four,” Katz said.
“The defendant pinned the teen against a pole with his vehicle and injured her mother and stepfather as he barreled his three-ton vehicle into them,” she added.
The teen died at the scene while her mother was taken to Elmhurst Hospital and expected to recover. The teen’s stepfather suffered minor injuries but was not hospitalized.
Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News
Edwin Cruz-Gomez in police custody leaving the 110th Precinct stationhouse in Queens on Sunday. (Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News)
The suspect, who lives in Uniondale, L.I., according to cops, stayed at the scene for about 10 seconds, video shows, then sped off on the sidewalk but crashed into a parked car and was nabbed by responding officers.
“He hit the girl, then tried to run away,” a cashier at a nearby store said “He backed away and he went (down) the wrong-way street.”
Jhoanny lived in Washington Heights with her family.
