MANHATTAN — A cab driver with two previous arrests for assault was charged with fatally striking a woman walking in an Upper East Side crosswalk Friday, according to police.
Syed Ullah, 49, from Kensington in Brooklyn, was heading eastbound on East 70th Street when he turned left onto Third Avenue around 5:42 p.m., striking 80-year-old Barbara Horn while she was in the crosswalk, police said.
Emergency responders took Horn to New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead, police said.
Ullah remained on the scene and was charged with failure to yield to a pedestrian. He was given a desk appearance ticket and told to return to court on Sept. 25, according to police.
Ullah has two prior arrests, including one in 1998 for assault and criminal contempt, as well as another last year for striking his son in Brooklyn, police said.
In the most recent incident, on Oct. 29, 2016, Ullah hit his son with an open hand on his back and shoulder in Fort Hamilton, prosecutors said.
He was charged with assault, attempted assault, menacing and harassment in that attack, pleading guilty to disorderly conduct in exchange for a conditional discharge, the Brooklyn District Attorney's office said.
Further information on the 1998 incident was unavailable.
