Mohammed Abdullah
New York City, d. 9.June 2019, killed
by drunk driver.
Mohammed Abdullah had been granted asylum in the United States and
was preparing to apply for a green card when a driver killed him on
Avenue D in East New York on the night of June 9th. Treasure
Liggins, 22, was arrested the next day, and charged with
manslaughter and driving while intoxicated, among other charges. At
the time, 29-year-old Mohammed was living with four roommates, all
Bangladeshi immigrants like himself, in a small apartment in East
New York. “He worked for Uber food delivery and GrubHub,” Mohammed’s
friend and landlord Mostafa Hossain said. “I was really upset about
it because he was always a happy guy and friendly. He would always
make a lot of jokes when we’d meet together.”
Mohammed was an honest and careful person, according to his friends,
and would sometimes ride on the sidewalk to avoid large cars. As
Hossain recalled, “Whenever he goes outside he’s very careful… he
always tried to be cool with people.” Mohammed immigrated to the
United States across the Mexican border in 2017 with his friend and
future roommate, 35-year-old Shohel Vhy. The men spent two months in
a detention center near the border, according to Vhy. In New York,
they worked for delivery apps in order to send money home to their
families, and dreamed of eventually saving enough to start their own
business. “We were thinking maybe a restaurant,” Vhy said. Another
former roommate, 29-year-old Shahad Shahad, delivers anywhere from
30 to 70 hours per week. He said that the work is dangerous,
especially when it’s raining. “This is a dangerous job all the
time,” Shahad said. “I’m looking for a different job right now. When
I get a new job, I’ll quit this job.”
From - 2019. Was An Extremely Deadly Year For NYC Cyclists
Here Are Their Stories, (BY EMMA WHITFORD), Gothamist, December 17,
2019.
DRUNK DRIVER CHARGED WITH FATALLY STRIKING AN E-BIKER IN CANARSIE
Brooklyn Paper, June 10, 2019
By Aidan Graham
A drunk driver fatally struck a man who was riding an e-bike in
Canarsie on June 9, according to authorities.
Police arrested 22-year-old Treasure Liggins, who was allegedly
speeding along Avenue D at around 10:30 p.m., when she lost control
of the vehicle and struck 29-year-old Mohammed Abdullah near the
intersection of E. 105th Street. After hitting the e-biker, Liggins
proceeded to strike the side of a building, cops said.
Liggins, who later failed a sobriety test, had been traveling with a
4-year-old child in the rear passenger seat, according to
investigators.
Emergency first responders arrived on the scene and took Abdullah,
who suffered severe trauma to the head and body, to Brookdale
Hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead. Liggins and the child
were taken to Kings County Hospital where they were treated for
minor injuries, according to authorities.
Following the gruesome crash, police charged Liggins with vehicular
manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, acting in a manner
injurious to a child and driving while intoxicated, among other
charges.
Abdullah’s death marks the 11th cyclist killed in the city this
year, and the ninth in Brooklyn. The total 2019 fatalities has
already surpassed the 10 total cyclist deaths throughout all of
2018, according to city data.
Sunday evening’s fatality marks the fourth Brooklynite killed in
car-crash related incidents this weekend, after two people struck a
traffic pole in Marine Park, and a pedestrian was struck by a car in
a Bath Beach crosswalk.
Charged: Treasure Liggins was arrested on June 9 and charged with
manslaughter, driving while intoxicated, criminally negligent
homicide and other charges after she fatally stuck a e-biker in
Canarsie.
Drunk driver speeding with 4-year-old son
in back seat fatally strikes Brooklyn Uber Eats deliveryman, a
Bangladeshi immigrant in the U.S. on political asylum: cops
By ELLEN MOYNIHAN, MIKEY LIGHT and ESHA RAY
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS, June 10, 2019
A drunk driver speeding through Brooklyn with her 4-year-old son in
the back seat fatally struck an Uber Eats deliveryman — a
hard-working Bangladeshi immigrant in the U.S. on political asylum,
authorities said Monday.
Treasure Liggins lost control of her 2007 Infiniti G35 on Avenue D
near E. 105th St. in Canarsie about 10:35 p.m. Sunday, slamming into
the victim on his e-bike, then jumping the curb and crashing into a
building, according to cops.
Mohammed Abdullah, 29, had just made his last delivery of the night
when he was struck riding his Arrow 10 e-Bike, devastated friends
said.
“Everyone wants to know what happened,” said pal Fakrul Islam, 24, a
Domino’s delivery driver. “Between last night and today, I have
gotten 200 phone calls.”
Liggins, 22, of East New York, was hit with a slew of charges
including manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide — plus
aggravated DWI for having her son in the car with her.
She and the victim lived within a mile of each other in East New
York.
Abdullah’s friends use an app called Zenly to monitor each others’
locations. They noticed he was stopped in one location for two hours
Sunday night and began to worry. They kept calling and he didn’t
answer so the concerned friends converged on the crash scene.
“My friend called me and said Abdullah did not pick up the phone so
we rode over there," said Arifur Rahman Sobuj, 27, an Uber driver
who roomed with Abdullah. “And then I see the police.”
“Then the cops say he is no more," Rahman added.
Abdullah was sent flying through the air by the impact, landing in
the roadway. He was rushed to Brookdale University Hospital but
couldn’t be saved.
“He had just delivered the food," said Khokon Ullah, 34, another
roommate and friend, who works at Domino’s. "This job, he didn’t
like it but he had to do.”
Abdullah worked in a shop making copies and teaching computer
classes in Bangladesh, where he was targeted for political reasons,
friends said. He came to the U.S. in 2017 and was held in
immigration detention in Texas for four months before winning
political asylum, according to pals.
“He was involved against the ruling party (in Bangladesh),” Islam
said. “He won asylum and this year he was going to apply for a green
card. And this will not happen because of this incident. Believe me,
we know what we lost."
Liggins’ mother, Jasmine Liggins, was shot to death in
Bedford-Stuyvesant in 2008 and the suspect, the mother’s boyfriend,
was later fatally shot by police in North Carolina moving in to
arrest him for the crime.
Treasure Liggins and her son live with her great-grandmother.
“I saw her yesterday afternoon at about 5 p.m. At that time, she
seemed fine,” the great-grandmother, Betty McLendon, 81, said of
Liggins. "It is a shock to me. She’s a good mother, a good person.”
Liggins told cops she drank a single glass of boxed red wine at a
children’s birthday party four hours before the crash. When she
consented to a blood test two hours after the crash she was just
below the legal limit of intoxication, prosecutors said.
Judge Joseph McCormack ordered Liggins held on $50,000 bail during
her arraignment in Brooklyn Criminal Court Monday. Her lawyer dabbed
tears from her face during the brief court appearance.
According to prosecutors, Liggins told police she thought the victim
was homeless. She and her son were treated at Kings County Hospital
after the crash for minor injuries.
Defense attorney Jamal Johnson denied Liggins was intoxicated at the
time of the crash. He said she only had the car for three days and
that there were problems with the engine belt and brakes.
“We are investigating the sale of this vehicle,” he said.
Abdullah’s parents are in Bangladesh and can’t afford to travel to
New York to plan his funeral, relatives said.
“His mother cannot believe it," said Abdullah’s uncle, Belal
Hossain, 59, a yellow cab driver who lives in Harlem. "She said,
'This isn’t true!’”
Abdullah dreamed of opening his own fried chicken restaurant in New
York, friends said.
“Whenever he visits my home I say, ‘Don’t bring anything.’ But he
does all the shopping and brings it," Hossain said. “He was very
honest and sincere.”
The city Department of Transportation announced a rule change last
year clarifying that pedal-assist e-bikes are legal on city streets,
while those with throttles enabling speed over 20 mph are banned.
“We are devastated by this horrible incident,” Uber spokeswoman Jodi
Page said. “Our thoughts are with Mohammed’s family and loved ones.”
