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[Warning: Video is disturbing]
A man is charged as the driver seen on video ramming a woman and her infant daughter with a car. David Poncurak, 43, was arrested for the harrowing incident on Friday, according to police in Yonkers, New York.
As seen on surveillance video, a woman apparently holding a small child begins crossing a street near an intersection. A dark-colored sedan barrels down from the screen’s upper-right. The driver made a wide turn, striking a curb and crashing into the rear end of a parked white sedan. The damage was not finished. The vehicle continued to turn, ramming into the woman as she tried to run away holding the child. The sedan crashed through the building front.
That was a barbershop, police said. The department credits 4th Precinct Officers Fusco and Samoyedny, said to be nearby getting breakfast at a bagel shop when they heard the collision. Body cam shows the frantic scene in the ruined barbershop. Officers and bystanders worked to picked up the crashed vehicle in order to save a small child who seemed to be under the car.
Both mother and daughter sustained serious injuries, cops said. From police:
The officers with the help of bystanders heroically LIFTED THE VEHICLE off of the baby so she could be rescued and given medical aid. The officers then rendered medical aid to both victims while requesting the necessary additional resources to the scene. The pedestrians were found to be a 36 year old female along with her 8-month-old infant daughter; their identities will not be released at this time. The mother sustained a serious femur fracture and the infant sustained a skull fracture along with 3rd degree burns to her back and foot.
They were taken to a hospital and are expected to survive, police said. The barbershop owner received a minor laceration, officers said. Poncurak was the driver, officers said. A woman, who was not identified by officers, was a passenger, they said.
“Neither sustained any reported injuries,” police said. “The investigation ultimately yielded that the operator had a suspended license; the vehicle he was operating was properly registered to a Yonkers resident. Investigators further found an alcoholic beverage in the vehicle. Due to the nature of the incident, a test was conducted to determine the alcohol/drug content of the vehicle operator’s blood.”
Poncurak was arrested for driving while intoxicated, vehicular assault in the second degree, and aggravated unlicensed operation in the second degree, police said. He remains in jail as of Sunday, records show. Law&Crime sent a request for comment to the public defender’s office that represents him.
[Screengrab via Yonkers Police Department]
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