While Germany has been rife with violent migrant crime, 50-year-old Alexandra Sabine Lewalter Maric and her husband, Udo Lewalter, 55, probably thought they would be safe from such things in New York City. Maybe a pickpocket or rude New Yorkers. 

Instead, the couple ended up as victims of Mohammed Abouzaid, 40, a driver without any license who recklessly ran over them in his 2001 Toyota Sienna in midtown Manhattan and then took off at high speed. 

Lewalter Maric was killed on the spot, nearly decapitated by being run over, while Lewalter was rushed to the hospital to have a severed finger reattached and a skull fracture treated. 

The couple had been in New York to celebrate their 23rd anniversary and had just returned from a Virgin cruise up the East Coast. Lewalter Maric had worked at Apple Retail Germany for the past 14 years, according to info from her LinkedIn profile, while Lewalter was a journalist for Computer Bild. 

Mohammed Abouzaid had only a learner’s permit when he backed up “at a high rate of speed” into the couple at a crosswalk, crashing into a parked box truck and leaving Lewalter Maric pinned under his minivan, reports the New York Post.

The perpetrator was arrested just an hour after the crash. According to an ongoing investigation, he had been living in his car, had been residing in NYC for some two years—but the New York Post writes it is “unclear” if the man was in the country illegally.   That’s when he struck the couple at the crosswalk, pinning the woman under his vehicle, and also hit a box truck stopped at the light, according to sources and a criminal complaint.

Manhattan Criminal Court has arraigned Mohammed on charges of leaving the scene of an accident and failure to yield to a pedestrian. Bail was set at $25,000 or a $75,000 bond.

“He was living out of the car he was driving, that caused this accident, specifically killing one person, and the other hospitalized with a skull fracture. The defendant fled the scene after he hit a pedestrian,” Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Courtenay Cullen told Judge Janet McDonnell, NYP reports. 

“I want to point out that he did show signs of not exercising due care,” Judge McDonnell said. “He must have known that he crashed into a truck, and he did drive off at a high rate of speed in a crowded intersection, which can be defined as reckless, killing someone.”

In his defense, Mohammed Abouzaid’s court-appointed public defender said the accused had “specific reasons” for driving off after the crash, including because “he was scared, he panicked, he doesn’t have insurance.” 

“He was caught at a box in an intersection, what he attempted to do was back up, he attempted to back up, and he hit a truck as he was trying to back up. Pedestrians were moving between his car and the truck. He doesn’t have insurance,” he said, asking the judge not to place Mohammed in jail.

Further charges have not been ruled out as the investigation is ongoing. 

According to a statement from the German Consulate, cited by the New York Post, “The injured person is being looked after by the consulate general.” The consulate was unwilling to provide any further details on the case.