The Brooklyn fireman whose SUV mowed down a young father in a weekend hit-and-run has been suspended from active duty while cops probe the fatal accident.
Pat Quagliariello, 39, showed his face in public on Monday - but continued his silence over who was driving the killer BMW.
He refused to speak with a Daily News reporter on Monday morning as he scurried out of his Midwood home. He hopped into a waiting car and drove away.
Quagliariello, a city firefighter since 2004, said little more to cops when he walked into the NYPD's 62nd Precinct stationhouse three hours after Manuel Tzajguachiac, 25, was killed early Sunday.
He admitted it was his BMW SUV that smashed into Tzajguachiac as the Guatemalan immigrant crossed 65th St. in Bensonhurst - a horrific accident captured on a nearby surveillance camera.
But Quagliariello then refused to talk and asked for a lawyer. Cops released him because they could not prove he was the driver. While investigators continued to work the case yesterday, including searching his car for forensic evidence, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said there was still "not sufficient evidence to make an arrest."
But a FDNY spokesman said Quagliariello, who is assigned to Ladder 172 in Bensonhurst just a few blocks from the crash scene, "has been relieved of his assignment at Ladder 172 and placed on administrative assignment" pending the outcome of the investigation.
FDNY officials would not confirm or deny a published report that Quagliariello spent time in the firehouse following the crash.
What is the story in this city? Every week a drunken cop or fireman runs down someone, and in the rare event the perp is found guilty, he gets 90 days in jail?
ReplyDeleteEasy to say as "anonymous"... This is a rare and isolated incident. It doesn't happen "every week" . Your comments are not only ignorant, but prejudicial, and you show your lack of intelligence and common sense in your inflammatory snap to judgement.
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