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Woman Killed In Hit-And-Run By Unlicensed Livery Cab Driver
By
Ben Yakas
Published Apr 7, 2013
Modified Apr 7, 2013
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Apr 7, 2013
Modified Apr 7, 2013
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A 21-year-old Westchester woman was fatally struck by an unlicensed livery cab driver during a hit-and-run in Harlem on Saturday. Taja Johnson, 21, was apparently in the street shouting at a person driving away in a silver Audi on Eighth Avenue near W. 133rd Street when a livery cab hit her about 4:30 a.m. A witness told the Post that unlicensed cab driver Boubacar Bathily, 51, dragged Johnson a few blocks, then drove away. “She slipped under the cab, and he dragged her from one block to the next,” the witness said.
“He let out his passenger — but I don’t know if she [the passenger] knew what was going on," the witness added. "Then the cab driver just took off. It’s like he didn’t even notice he hit her.” Johnson, who lives in Mount Vernon and dates a housing cop, was rushed to Harlem Hospital, where she died.
It turns out that Bathily had borrowed the vehicle from Aliou Kanout, 54, for the night. Kanout defended his friend to the Post: “He told me that when he was driving he hit something in street,” Kanout said. “He said that to him, it looked like a trash bag in the street. When he turned around to look at what happened, the thing on the ground looked like a human being. He panicked and drove away.”
Bathily ended up turning himself into police a few hours after the incident. He has now been charged with leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death, motor vehicle license violation (no driver's license), and failure to exercise due care.
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death
harlem
hit and run
livery cab
manhattan
Taja Johnson
Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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