NEW YORK (CNN) — New York police are searching for a man in connection with a hit-and-run crash that killed two expectant parents and caused the death of their newborn baby.
Police identified the man as Julio Acevedo, 44, and released a photo of him on Monday. It was not immediately clear how police believe he was connected with the crash.
Acevedo was arrested last month on drunk driving charges, New York Police Department Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne said.
The police statement comes a day after a car crash that killed Nathan and Raizy Glauber and devastated a close-knit, ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn, New York.
Their baby boy was delivered by cesarean section from his dead mother’s womb. He survived for a day before succumbing to his injuries on Monday, police said.
At the time of the crash, the Glaubers — both 21 — were on the way to Long Island College Hospital, said Officer Sophia Tassy-Mason, a spokeswoman for the New York City Police Department.
“She just wasn’t feeling well and they just, they went to check it out,” said Sarah Gluck, Raizy Glauber’s cousin.
Police say a BMW slammed into the Glaubers’ cab at an intersection. The two occupants of the BMW fled the scene on foot.
Authorities arrested the registered owner of the BMW on Monday. Takia Walker was arrested on insurance fraud charges, Browne said.
The deadly crash brought heartache to the Glaubers’ Hasidic community in Brooklyn, many of whom mourned the couple’s deaths at a funeral service on Sunday.
“What can we do now?” Isaac Abraham, a community leader and neighbor of the couple, said on Monday. “We are looking at the prosecutor; we want the people responsible charged with triple homicide, nothing less.”
The young Orthodox Jewish couple were “preparing for the most joyous moment in life, to become parents, ready to build a castle to the future and build a family,” he told CNN affliate WABC.
“The message to the driver: We know law enforcement is going to get to you,” he said. “But our message is give yourself up before we find you.”
Motor vehicle crashes are among the leading causes of death in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In the first nine months of 2012, more than 25,500 people died in motor vehicle traffic crashes, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. That number showed a 7% increase over the number of deaths in the same period in 2011, officials said.
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