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Cabbie in Deadly Hit-and-Run Saw Woman Lying in Street and Drove Away: DA

By Aidan Gardiner | September 14, 2017 1:55pm
 Azizur Mazumder, inset, confessed to exiting his car to close the door his passenger fell from, the DA said.
Azizur Mazumder, inset, confessed to exiting his car to close the door his passenger fell from, the DA said.
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DNAinfo/Ben Fractenberg and the Taxi and Limousine Commission

MANHATTAN — A cabbie saw his fare lying face down on Lexington Avenue and drove away anyway, leaving her to get fatally struck by another cab driver on Wednesday, prosecutors said.

According to the Manhattan DA's office, Azizur Mazumder, 46, picked up the unidentified woman at 122nd Street and Lexington Avenue, and then headed south. Mazumder had just passed East 69th Street minutes after 5 a.m. when he heard a chime indicating his door was open Wednesday, prosecutors said.

Mazumder told Detective Jose Diaz that he noticed the woman was no longer in her seat so he got out and saw her lying face-down on Lexington Avenue, according to prosecutors.

But instead of seeing if she was OK, he closed her door, got back into his cab and drove off down Lexington Avenue, according to the DA.

About 90 seconds later, a second cab driving down Lexington Avenue hit her, prosecutors said.

Video shows that cab slow down before accelerating "over the woman's body" and then hooking a left on East 68th Street, according to prosecutors and the NYPD.

That driver hadn't been arrested as of Thursday morning, police said.

“I saw a woman laying on the street — mangled. She was bleeding profusely — blood coming out of her head," said Alberto De La Cruz, 53, who was nearby and visited the crash scene when he noticed police.

"How could a human being do that and just drive away? Heartless," he added.

The woman, who police believe was in her 30s, was pronounced dead at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, officials said.

Mazumder was arrested about 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and charged with leaving the scene of an incident without reporting, records show. Bail was set at $5,000, but it wasn't immediately clear if he'd paid it.

He's due back in court on Oct. 23.

His Legal Aid attorney, Beth Unger, declined to comment.

Mazumder has a history of traffic infractions dating back to Jan. 7, 2015, when he made an improper right turn in The Bronx while using a portable electronic device, DMV officials said.

Then on June 12, 2015, he crashed and injured someone on the Upper East Side, according to the DMV. The circumstances of that incident weren't immediately clear.

Then on Aug. 1, 2015, he drove 35 mph through a 25 mph zone, officials said.

The Taxi and Limousine Commission officials suspended Mazumder's license pending the outcome of the investigation into the fatal hit-and-run, officials said. It was the first time Mazumder's licence had been suspended.