Press Release

QUEENS MAN CHARGED WITH VEHICULAR MANSLAUGHTER IN DEADLY CRASHES THAT KILLED PASSENGER

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced today that Harpreet Singh, 20, has been charged with vehicular manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and other crimes for allegedly driving while intoxicated, running a red light and crashing into two vehicles. A male passenger in the defendant’s car was injured and killed in the early morning collisions on Wednesday, April 21, 2021.

 

District Attorney Katz said, “As alleged, the defendant’s actions created mayhem on our streets with tragic consequences. Without a license and allegedly intoxicated, the defendant had no business getting behind the wheel of a vehicle. As a result of that selfish decision, a young man’s life has been cut short and two other motorists are lucky to be alive.”

 

Singh, of 118th Street in Richmond Hill, Queens, was arraigned late Wednesday night before Queens Criminal Court Judge Frances Wang on a five-count complaint charging him with vehicular manslaughter in the second degree, leaving the scene of an incident without reporting injury or death, criminally negligent homicide, operating a motor vehicle while under influence of alcohol and driving by unlicensed operator. Judge Wang ordered the defendant to return to Court on April 26, 2021. If convicted, Singh faces up to seven years in prison.

 

District Attorney Katz said that on April 21, 2021, at approximately 1 a.m., police responded to the scene of two car crashes. The defendant was behind the wheel of a 2018 Honda Accord going eastbound on Atlantic Avenue when he allegedly ran a red light and struck a Ford pick-up truck at 111th Street. Singh continued driving and allegedly then hit a Mercedes Benz GLA250 on Atlantic Avenue.

 

Continuing, the DA said, police found Suraj Kumar, 23, unresponsive with extensive head and body injuries in the front passenger seat of the Honda Accord.

 

When police interviewed the defendant at the scene, he allegedly gave them a fake name and stated he had been in the back seat of the Honda. Moments later, he allegedly left the scene to go to the hospital without admitting to being the driver and in fact gave police the name of a fictitious individual as the one behind the wheel.

 

A witness reported to police that it was Singh who had been the actual driver of the Honda.

 

According to the charges, Singh appeared intoxicated and was not licensed to drive an automobile.

 

DA Katz said Mr. Kumar was rushed to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead at approximately 1:25 a.m.

 

The investigation was conducted by Detective Patrick McMahon of the New York City Police Department’s Highway Safety Dist. under the supervision of Sergeant Robert Denig.

 

Assistant District Attorney Bryan Kotowski, of the District Attorney’s Homicide Bureau, is prosecuting the case, with the assistance of Assistant District Attorney Ryan Nicolosi, of the Career Criminal Major Crimes Bureau, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Peter J. McCormack III, Senior Deputy Bureau Chief of Homicide, John W. Kosinski and Karen Ross, Deputy Bureau Chiefs, and under the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Daniel A. Saunders.

**Criminal complaints and indictments are accusations. A defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.