New York City, NY: Police in Brooklyn say that a man crashed his Mercedes-Benz into a public bus in February and then ran away, leaving his friend to die on his birthday. Two months later, the man was caught and charged with multiple felonies.
Police arrested 31-year-old Michael Rivera on April 30 for manslaughter, criminally negligent murder, speeding, leaving the scene of a fatal accident, and running a red light.
The accident happened on February 26 in Williamsburg and killed Alex Caba. He was enjoying his 33rd birthday with Rivera and some other friends when an MTA bus hit their candy-colored Mercedes, which had just run a red light, police said.
The Mercedes sped into the intersection at 9:45 p.m., but it wasn’t fast enough to miss the bus that was coming the other way.
Police say that the driver and four other people in the expensive car were in it when it crashed.
Ivelise Caba, the victim’s sister, said that Rivera demanded that they go out to celebrate, even though Caba had planned to spend the day alone at home.
“He wasn’t going to go outside,” she told the New York Daily News the next day, after the terrible event. His plans to go out were not to happen. ‘Come out, come out!’ was Michael’s call. In the end, my brother said, “Okay.””
The driver of the fast-moving car that ran the red light at Harrison Avenue and Lorimer Street killed Caba by throwing him out the window.
Rivera was going too fast south on Harrison when he ran the red light at Lorimer, just seconds before the accident. The B48 bus then hit the car in the middle of the crossing.
The bus driver, who was going east on Lorimer, had the right of way when he hit the Mercedes’s rear passenger side. The Mercedes spun out of control and crashed into a Citi Bike station on the sidewalk, stopping in a screeching heap.
Police say Caba, who was sitting in the back seat, was thrown out of the car when it hit something, his body landing on the ground like a rag doll.
Authorities say that Caba was still alive for a while after the crash, but he died later from serious injuries.
The victim didn’t seem to have been hit by any other moving cars, and no one else was hurt on the bus or anywhere else.
Police say Rivera and the three other people in the car accident ran away on foot while Caba was still dying.
At first, it wasn’t clear if Rivera’s Mercedes was registered to her. She disappeared just as police said they were looking for the car’s driver, and nothing new was said about the case for two months.
However, the police did not immediately say how they finally caught Rivera. Ivelise Caba told the Daily News that she was still shocked that her brother had died.
The crash spot was less than a mile away, just five blocks from where Caba and Rivera lived. For some reason, the Cabas didn’t understand why Rivera would turn his back on a friend who was dying.
Rivera is still in jail and is waiting to be arraigned in Brooklyn Criminal Court.
