A BMW driver has been charged with manslaughter for a 2019 chain-reaction crash on a Bronx expressway that killed a young correction officer and a good Samaritan helping a woman involved in a fender-bender, police said Wednesday.
Anyelo Velez Rodriguez, 33, remained at the scene of the Feb. 11, 2019, pileup on the Cross Bronx Expressway — and after a five-year investigation cops have now charged him with manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide. He has no prior arrests.
The deadly chain of events began when a 24-year-old woman driving a Mercedes-Benz rear-ended a GMC going west on the expressway near Webster Ave about 1:15 a.m.
Obtained by New York Daily News Richard Lue
At that point, Jaquan Cesar, a 28-year-old medical technician who lived in upstate Beacon and was on his way to visit his girlfriend and their 1-year-old son, got out of his car to help the Mercedes driver.
Cesar “lost his life trying to save another,” his devastated aunt, Magalie Cesar, told the Daily News at the time. Cesar, she said, was a dialysis technician “committed to helping people.”
Velez Rodriguez, driving his BMW, rear-ended the Mercedes, which hit Cesar, launching him over the concrete barrier and onto the westbound side of the expressway, police said.
Another driver struck Cesar in the westbound lanes and did not stop. Cesar died at the scene. The driver who struck him has never been caught.
The Mercedes driver Cesar was trying to help suffered only a minor arm injury.
“Because he works in the medical field, he’s CPR-certified. I think that’s what drove him,” his aunt said in 2019. “He talked about his patients. That drove him to step out of the car.”
Velez Rodriguez meanwhile lurched backwards in his BMW into a Honda driven by Richard Lue, a 22-year-old correction officer. The impact sent the Honda crashing into a tractor trailer whose driver also did not stop.
Lue was rushed to St. Barnabas Hospital, where he died that night.
He had just started working on Rikers Island.
“He was well-liked by his fellow officers and just beginning a very promising career,” Elias Husamudeen, president of the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association, said at the time.
Velez Rodriguez’s arraignment was pending in Bronx Criminal Court Wednesday, a day after his arrest. He lives about a mile from the scene of the crash, according to cops.
