A Queens man accused of stabbing two men before deliberately driving his car into a group of people on a sidewalk near a hookah bar on Sunday was nabbed by police after one of the victims recognized him at the hospital, a law enforcement source said Monday.
Police arrested Adrian Harry, 22, of Far Rockaway, in connection with the attack, charging him with murder, assault, reckless endangerment and criminal possession of a weapon.
Harry got into an argument with two men in a parked car as he was trying to park his white Hyundai Sonata at about 4:30 a.m. outside the XS hookah bar on Liberty Avenue between 127th and 128th streets in Richmond Hill, according to police.
The dispute escalated when Harry got out of his car and stabbed both men, ages 22 and 28, in their torsos during a brawl on the street just as the hookah bar was closing, police said.
After the stabbing, a crowd of people on the sidewalk near the hookah bar swarmed around Harry and pushed him to the ground before walking off down the street along with at least one of the stabbing victims, according to the police source.
Harry then got into his car, drove about a half block and mounted the sidewalk at 128th Street, striking six people, including one of the men he had stabbed, according to police and the source. It was unclear if the stabbing victim knew the other people who were struck.
One man, identified as Far Rockaway resident Richardo Chattergoon, 23, was pronounced dead at the scene, while the rest of the victims were taken to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, police said.
When Harry showed up at the same hospital with a fake story to account for his injuries, the stabbing victim who was not hit by the car pointed him out to the detectives, who were there to interview the victims, according to the source.
The man who was stabbed and then hit by Harry’s car suffered a fractured skull and remained in critical condition Monday afternoon, the source said. The other six victims were in stable condition as of Monday morning.
During an unrelated news conference Monday afternoon, NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said Harry and Chattergoon knew each other, but did not arrive outside the hookah bar together.
A call to the hookah bar went unanswered.
With Alison Fox and Lauren Cook
