The unlicensed driver police say fatally struck a mother and her two children in Brooklyn has been charged with manslaughter — just months after the wig-making social media influencer won a $2 million lawsuit against the NYPD, law enforcement sources say.
Audi driver Miriam Yarimi, 32, had a suspended license when she got behind the wheel Saturday afternoon, police said. She was headed north on Ocean Parkway in Midwood when she collided with a 2023 Toyota Camry with TLC plates making a right turn off Quinten Rd., police said
Yarimi then careened into the crosswalk, hitting a 35-year-old mother and her three young children, police said. The mom and her two daughters, ages 5 and 8, died on the scene, while the third child, a 4-year-old boy, was hospitalized in critical condition.
Yarimi’s Audi, which sports the vanity plate “WIGM8KER,” overturned in the crash, landing upside down. First responders had to extricate Yarimi from the luxury sedan before taking her to to NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn in stable condition.
Yarimi, a custom wig seller and influencer with a following on Instagram and TikTok, posed with her Audi in an August 2023 Instagram post.
The car has racked up nearly $11,000 in traffic and parking violations, including 21speed camera tickets and five red light tickets, according to data on howsmydrivingny.nyc.
Yarimi won a $2 million settlement from the city in December after she filed a lawsuit alleging NYPD Officer George Mastrokostas repeatedly raped her for several years after falsely arresting her when she was 14, public records show.
She posted about the lawsuit in several TikTok videos, including one from October where she states, “South Brooklyn NYPD has always been corrupt… They want to shut me up because they sexually abused me.”
In another video, from just earlier this month, she alludes to buying a custom-built Porsche with her settlement money. Her TikTok account has racked up over one million likes.
Police were investigating whether Yarimi ran a red light, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Saturday.
“I will call it like it is,” Tisch told reporters Saturday. “This was a horrific tragedy caused by someone who shouldn’t have been on the road.”
The 62-year-old driver of the Toyota Camry and his four passengers, a woman and three kids, were taken to Kings County Hospital and treated for minor injuries.
