The family of a bicycle deliveryman who was tragically killed by a driver allegedly under the influence of PCP and marijuana in Harlem is demanding a life sentence for the driver.
“I want justice,” Marisel Zacarias, whose nephew Darly Zacarias lost his life, stated in an interview. “He needs to be locked up for the rest of his life,” she said of the accused driver, Kevin Crosby. “He deserves life imprisonment. He took away someone who was just beginning his journey.”
According to court documents, the 49-year-old Crosby was operating a red Hyundai Tucson while impaired when he reportedly hit Zacarias, 28, and another 33-year-old bicyclist near the intersection of 125th Street and Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard at approximately 8 p.m. on Thursday.
The impact led to the victims being dragged along the bustling street, with sparks visibly flying from the underside of the vehicle.
As pedestrians frantically tried to avoid the oncoming car, Crosby eventually crashed into a parked NYPD cruiser, as captured by video footage.
Pedestrians scrambled to get out of his way before he barreled into a parked NYPD cruiser, footage showed.
The second victim was in Harlem Hospital in serious condition.
Crosby was charged with manslaughter and driving while high, cops said. He was sent to
Rikers Island jail.
Crosby has 19 prior arrests on his record, including one for aggravated vehicle assault in June 2020, police sources said.
In that case, he allegedly struck three pedestrians and hit multiple vehicles on Jerome Avenue and West Fordham Road in the Bronx, according to records.
The Bronx District Attorney’s office lowered the assault charge and prosecuted him on reckless driving and reckless endangerment. He pleaded guilty and got probation.
The victim’s aunt was beside herself with grief.
“He took a father whose kid was only 10 years old,” she said.
The boy turned 10 the day his father was killed, she added.
Zacarias came to the country nearly 20 years ago with his mother, who died when he was 10, according to his aunt said.
His 75-year-old grandmother, Gisela Zacarias, raised him and his brother and sister, but was unable to speak — because she couldn’t stop crying.
Zacarias worked to support them and his family in the Dominican Republic, especially his father, who has a medical condition, the aunt said.
“He was just very happy,” the aunt said of her nephew. “His happiness was contagious.”
The aunt can’t forget watching video of him getting hit by the speed-demon.
“It came and hit him from behind,” she said in shock. “That’s what keeps playing in my mind, and the moment I identified his body in the morgue. I touched his face. I recognized him because of the tattoos on his arms.”
The aunt had pleaded with Zacarias to stop doing deliveries, she said.
“I told him to find another job,” she said. “My mother told him to stop too. We thought it was a very dangerous job, but I never thought his life would end because of someone else’s bad action.”
Now she has to tell Zacarias’ son that his dad is gone.
“How do you tell a 10-year-old his father is not here anymore?” she asked.
“His mom thinks it’s not time yet to tell him,” the aunt said. “He just thinks that his father is not picking up the phone so he keeps on calling.”
Additional reporting by Marie Pohl and Jennifer Bain.
