A minivan driver cops say killed a German tourist as he reversed into the victim and her husband in a blood-soaked hit-and-run near Bryant Park in Midtown has been criminally charged, cops said Thursday.
Mohammed Abouzaid, 40, is facing charges of leaving the scene of a fatal accident and failure to yield to a pedestrian for allegedly reversing his Toyota Sienna into 50-year-old Alexandra Sabine Lewalter Maric and her husband near W. 40th St. and Fifth Ave. about 2:40 p.m. Wednesday.
Witnesses said Lewalter Maric was near decapitated by the horrific crash.
Abouzaid, 40, pinned Lewalter Maric and her 55-year-old husband against an Isuzu box truck behind him after throwing his minivan in reverse, cops said.
“It was mucho rapido,” horrified ice cream truck driver Rosa Paredes, 38, who witnessed the carnage, told the Daily News Wednesday. “(The couple) were sandwiched, crushed, they were on the ground, she died instantly. The blood sprayed everywhere. It was horrible.”
Lewalter Maric’s husband, seriously injured, was spotted feebly reaching out to his dead wife as he lay sprawled on the asphalt, a mixed nuts vendor nearby said.
“The guy was bleeding from the head and shoulder — he was reaching over to her but she was dead,” said the vendor. “She was facedown on the ground. Her head was squished, like decapitated.”
Abouzaid sped off but was apprehended by cops after he got caught in traffic six blocks away at W. 38th St. and Eighth Ave.
“The cops were right behind him,” said smoke shop worker Rabb Shivers, 40. “They whooped the sirens. He got out, took a deep breath and put his hands behind his back. They cuffed him. There was no struggle, nothing. He was too cool. He was done.”
Abouzaid lives in the Castle Hill section of the Bronx, according to cops. His minivan has a Mississippi license plate on its front and a “Times Square” souvenir vanity plate on its rear.
Lewalter Maric died at the scene. Her husband was rushed to Bellevue Hospital, where he was treated for a skull fracture but is expected to survive, police said.
The couple was visiting New York City from Hamburg, Germany, and were staying at the Moxy hotel, police said.
Abouzaid’s arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court was pending Thursday.
