The distraught father of the driver who left a woman to die inside a burning car on the Brooklyn Queens Expressway last week is searching for answers, and has deemed his son's actions "crazy."
"Why not call 911?" Mohammad Azam, Saeed Ahmad's father, wondered on Sunday, according to the Post. "He see the girl burn. Why he go? He crazy. When I see him, I will ask him what happened."
According to the NYPD, Saeed Ahmad, 23, was speeding on the Gowanus Expressway when he lost control of the car and hit a concrete barrier early Friday morning. The car burst into flames, trapping his date, Harleen Grewel, in the passenger seat.
Eyewitness video of the scene shows Ahmad hailing a cab in front of the burning vehicle, in which Grewel, 25, ultimately died. Ahmad was later arrested at Maimonides Hospital and charged with manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and leaving the scene of an accident. He admitted to have a few drinks before the crash, police sources told the Daily News.
Ahmad's father also criticized the cab driver who drove his son to the hospital. "One guy, burned, confused. In the taxi, why not call the police?" Azam asked. "Why take him to hospital?"
Ahmad's brother Waheed Ahmad, meanwhile, called his brother a hero on Saturday, and insisted that he did everything in his power to rescue Grewel. "He did not just run away from the scene," the brother said, according to the Post. "He lost his phone in the car [and was] unable to call the ambulance."
"He tried to get her out. That’s how his hands and his legs and his neck got burned. He couldn’t get her out. The fire got too crazy. It just burned so quick."
According to ABC7, Grewel's family are reeling from the loss. "She was an Angel. Good soul. Always making sure the person next to her is happy," Grewel's boyfriend Kharan Dhillon wrote on Facebook.
As of Sunday, Ahmad was still recovering in a hospital. The NYPD's investigation into the crash is ongoing.
