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East Village Crash Driver Hid PCP In Sock, Asked Cops, "Am I Dead?"
By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Jun 22, 2013
Modified Jun 22, 2013
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Scott Lynch
By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Jun 22, 2013
Modified Jun 22, 2013
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The driver of the car that crashed into an East Village bodega early Wednesday morning was allegedly pretty drugged up and drunk: after he hit three bodega workers and a cyclist, he repeatedly asked, "Am I dead?", and prosecutors say PCP was found on him at the time of the crash.
The driver, 32-year-old Queens Shaun Martin, was previously convicted of a DWI in 2007; on Wednesday, DNAinfo reports that after Martin cut three lanes, jumped a curb and injured bystanders at 2nd Avenue and East 4th Street, "he had bloodshot eyes, was unsteady on his feet, kept repeating 'Am I dead?'" And while it was previously reported that cops found marijuana stashed in Martin's sock after the crash, prosecutors say EMT workers found a Ziploc bag of PCP hidden there, too, and a woman who had been with Martin just before to the accident said "he had been drinking and doing drugs all night."
One of the bodega works hit, 63-year-old Muhammed Akkas Ali,suffered severe injures to his legs and head, and is still unconscious. "Everybody's very upset. My mother, she can't stop crying," his son, Rukanul Islam, told ABC News. The other victims are recovering from more minor injuries; meanwhile, East Village residents are trying to establish a slow zone near the site of the crash, in hopes of cutting down on pedestrian and cyclist injuries and deaths. Martin was speeding at the time of the accident, and it has been speculated that he was engaging in a drunk drag race with another driver.
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bodega crash
drugs
dwi
east village
manhattan
shaun martin
Rebecca Fishbein
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