A cab driver from Queens was arrested on Saturday after he allegedly mowed down a former Rikers Island inmate who had escaped from custody for several weeks last year.
Abdul Hakim, 71, is accused of slamming into James Mossetty, 36, as he was crossing at York Avenue and East 72 Street in the Upper East Side shortly before 5 a.m. Saturday, according to police.
Mossetty somehow became lodged in part of the car, a 2021 Toyota RAV4, and was dragged for several blocks before he became dislodged on the Queensboro Bridge, the NYPD said.
The pedestrian was pronounced dead upon arrival at New York-Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center.
Hakim was busted hours later.
When interviewed by police, Hakim admitted that he was out driving the taxi at the time of the collision.
The cabbie told investigators that he heard “a loud sound like he hit something” and that the taxi was moving slower than usual “as if it was dragging something,” according to a criminal complaint.
But Hakim never exited the SUV to check and instead handed off the taxi to another driver he shared it with less than an hour after he allegedly plowed into Mossetty.
The other driver immediately noticed damage to the hood of the taxi that hadn’t been there just a day prior, according to the complaint.
They checked in with Hakim, who repeatedly insisted he hadn’t hit anything during his early morning run, according to the complaint.
Hakim was charged with leaving the scene of an incident without reporting, a typical misdemeanor that was boosted to a felony charge because of Mossetty’s death.
He is being held on $100,000 bail and is set to appear in court on Sept. 5.
Last July, Mossetty escaped from police custody while he was being treated at Bellevue Hospital. He somehow shimmied out of his handcuffs, but was quickly apprehended on an MTA bus just two miles away from the hospital.
He was in police custody for assault, theft of services and criminal possession of a controlled substance — all misdemeanor charges.
The theft of services charge was for allegedly refusing to pay a $36 taxi fare in Lower Manhattan in August 2023.
Mossetty’s family remembered him as a loving father, brother, and uncle with “more lives than a cat,” according to a memorial on social media.
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