A man behind the wheel of a Queens crime scene wanted in the 2019 death of a 72-year-old great-grandmother has finally been arrested after nearly five years on the run from justice, authorities said.
“When [el detective] “He called me, I was paralyzed, I couldn’t believe it, I was speechless,” explained Gloria Lascano-Vargas, the eldest of the five children of the tragic victim Gilda Lascano.
“I was like, ‘Are you sure, is it positive?’ AND [el detective] He said, ‘Yes, the DNA test we did, the blood that was in the airbag, you know, confirmed and matched the DNA,'” the daughter recalled.
“I called my brother and my two sisters. We were all on the line and I told them what the detective told me,” said Lascano-Vargas, 54.
The suspect, identified as Naquan Young, 46, was arrested on a Pennsylvania fugitive warrant and extradited to the Big Apple, officials said.
Young was being sought in connection with the fatal Lascano crash, after his gray Lexus SUV ran a red light at 1:15 a.m. in Ozone Park on Sept. 10, 2019, and crashed into a Honda CRV. burgundy car in which the great-grandmother was a passenger, police said.
The onslaught was so strong that it sent the Honda flying into the front of a flower shop and Lascano through the CRV’s windshield and under a nearby parked vehicle, officials said.
The elderly woman who worked as a cleaning employee and at that moment was going home after her night shift with another co-worker, her daughter noted.
Lascano-Vargas said her mother, who had eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, was “half a block or maybe less than half a block from home” when she was killed, the New York Post reported.
The woman was pronounced dead at the scene, while the driver of the Honda, an unidentified 56-year-old woman, was hospitalized.
The suspect fled the scene on foot, deputies said.
The circumstances of his detention after five years were not immediately clear.
The charges against Young are: criminal negligence, second-degree murder, second-degree assault and leaving the scene of an accident.
The person responsible for the hit-and-run was arraigned in Queens criminal court on Friday and is behind bars without bail, court officials said.
The victim’s daughter was present at Young’s arraignment on Friday and plans to be at his next court appearance at the end of July with her two sons and two sisters to continue following up on the case.
“All we want is for him to serve his sentence,” he said. Once we know how old he is going to be, we can finally leave him alone.”
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