A hit-and-run driver has finally been arrested five years later for allegedly killing a good Samaritan and another driver in a series of crashes on a Bronx freeway, police said.
According to the New York City Police Department, he is accused of crashing his BMW into a cross-over on the Cross Bronx Expressway around 1:15 a.m. on February 11, 2019, killing pedestrian Jaquan Cesar and motorist Richard Lu. Aniello Velez Rodriguez, 33, was arrested Tuesday and charged with manslaughter, police said. .
Authorities said Cesar, 28, was on his way to visit his then-1-year-old son, Yasir, and his girlfriend when his 2015 Mercedes Benz crashed into a 2012 GMC on the westbound Cross Bronx near Webster Street. He said he witnessed the collision.
Police said Cesar got out of his car and tried to help, but then Velez-Rodriguez struck his Mercedes from behind, throwing Cesar over the barrier and into the eastbound lanes, where he was struck by another car. He was reportedly hit by a hit-and-run driver.
Cesar worked as a dialysis technician for people suffering from end-stage renal disease at a clinic in Flushing, his aunt, Maggu Jean-François, told the Post after the tragedy.
After Cesar’s mother died from an illness, his aunt, who raised Cesar and his two younger brothers, said, “It’s hard to accept that he died the way he did, but he died helping someone.” .That’s what I did every day, even when I went to work.” He was diagnosed with Graves’ disease when he was 28 years old.
“In dialysis, we work with blood every day, so we know how to stop bleeding,” Jean-François added. “I know what he was going to do is go in and help.”
After hitting the Samaritan, Velez-Rodriguez sped up and rear-ended a 2018 Honda driven by 22-year-old Richard Lu, authorities said.
Police said the man then collided with a trailer that also fled the scene.
Police said Cesar was pronounced dead at the scene, and 22-year-old Lu was taken to St. Barnabas Hospital, where he died from his injuries.
The driver of the Mercedes, a 24-year-old woman who was not arrested, suffered minor injuries to her arm.
Velez Rodriguez, of the Morris Heights neighborhood of the Bronx, was also charged with manslaughter, authorities said. His arraignment was pending Wednesday.
