Eyewitness News reporter Sarah Wallace talked to Julio Acevedo, the man wanted in a deadly hit and run in Brooklyn, by phone on Tuesday morning. Acevedo says he is afraid to surrender. Police said Julio Acevedo was speeding down the Brooklyn street in a BMW at 60 mph early Sunday when he collided with another car carrying Nachman and Raizy Glauber, both 21. They died Sunday, and their premature son died Monday. "I was speeding, trying to get away because I was scared from someone shooting at me. The cab driver came out of nowhere and I couldn't stop," Acevedo told Eyewitness News reporter Sarah Wallace. Acevedo said he fled the scene because he was scared. He told Sarah Wallace that his heart goes out to family, and he does want to surrender. "This why I am willing to turn myself in, because my heart goes out to all of those people that's feeling like I'm so much of a bad guy and I'm really not. I did not know that occurred until I seen the news. Once I seen the news, I said I have to get my attorney ready before I turn myself in," he said. The call was arranged by a friend of Acevedo. Acevedo was arrested last month on a charge of driving while under the influence, and the case is pending. He was stopped by police after they said he was driving erratically around 3 a.m. Feb. 17. He had a blood alcohol level of .13, over the limit of .08, police said. He served about a decade in prison in the 1990s for manslaughter after he was convicted of shooting Kelvin Martin, a Brooklyn criminal whose moniker "50 Cent" was the inspiration for rapper Curtis Jackson's current stage name. No one answered the door at Acevedo's last known address, in a public housing complex in Brooklyn. Neighbors said his mother lived in the same building, but she did not answer her door. The couple belonged to a close-knit ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn, and members were in mourning. The child had been delivered by cesarean section after his parents were killed. The baby weighed only about 4 pounds when he was delivered, neighbors and friends said. He died of extreme prematurity, the city medical examiner's office said. The baby was buried Monday near the fresh graves of his parents, according to Isaac Abraham, a spokesman for the Hasidic Jewish community. About a thousand community members turned out for the young couple's funeral a day earlier. "The mood in the neighborhood is very heavy," said Oscar Sabel, a retired printer who lives near the scene of the accident. "We all hoped the baby would survive." Brooklyn is home to the largest community of ultra-Orthodox Jews outside Israel, more than 250,000. The couple wed last year in a marriage arranged through a matchmaker and were living in the Williamsburg neighborhood. They were members of the Satmar Hasidic sect, whose men dress in dark coats and hats, wear long beards like their Eastern European ancestors and have limited dealings with the outside world. Raizy Glauber grew up in a prominent rabbinical family. Her husband was studying at a rabbinical college; his family founded a line of clothing for Orthodox Jews. Sabel, dressed in the traditional long black coat of the Satmar, said it was a terrible tragedy. "But it's what God wants," he said. "Maybe the baby's death, and his parents', is not for nothing; God doesn't have to give us answers." Shortly after midnight Sunday, Raizy Glauber, who was seven months pregnant, wasn't feeling well, so the couple decided to go to the hospital, said Sara Glauber, Nachman Glauber's cousin. They called a livery cab, a hired car that is arranged via telephone, not hailed off the street like a yellow cab. The livery cab had a stop sign, but it's not clear if the driver stopped. Police said the crash with the BMW reduced the cab to a crumpled heap, and Raizy Glauber was thrown from the wreck. The engine ended up in the back seat, Abraham said. Police said the driver of the BMW ran away. The driver of the livery cab, Pedro Nunez Delacruz, was knocked unconscious but was not seriously hurt. His vehicle should not have been sent to pick up the passengers because an application to use the Toyota as a livery cab had not yet been approved, the city Taxi and Limousine Commission said. "We in the community are demanding that the prosecutor charge the driver of BMW that caused the death of this couple and infant ... with triple homicide," Abraham said in a statement. "This coward left the scene of the accident not even bothering to check on the people of the other car." How Acevedo came to possess the BMW is also under investigation. The registered owner, Takia Walker, was arrested on insurance fraud charges Sunday in a scam involving the car, police said. She was not involved in the crash.

• published: 05 Mar 2013
• views: 1793