Cops believe Brooklyn wigmaker and social media influencer Miriam Yarimi was going about twice the speed limit when she fatally struck a mother and two of her children, police sources said Monday.
Natasha Saada, 35 was in the crosswalk with her three young children at Ocean Parkway and Quentin Road in Midwood when Yarimi allegedly careened into them Saturday, police said. The mom and her two daughters, Deborah, 5, and Diana, 8, were rushed to Maimonides Medical Center but couldn’t be saved, dying within 20 minutes of each other, according to police.
Saada’s 4-year-old son remained in critical condition Monday.
Investigators believe Yarimi was going about 50 mph in the 25-mph zone, police sources said.
Yarimi, 32, has been transferred to a psychiatric ward at Bellevue Hospital after being taken to NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn in stable condition, said law enforcement sources. After the crash Yarimi told responding medics she was possessed, police said Sunday.
Police have applied for a warrant for the data box from Yarimi’s car, which will show the exact speed she was traveling at and determine whether or not she tried to brake before smashing into another motorist and then the Saada family, sources said.
Cops do not believe alcohol or drugs played a part in the crash, but noted Yarimi was wearing her seatbelt when she spun out of control. She was driving with a suspended license, a consequence of an insurance lapse, according to police sources.
A neighbor of the Saada family remembered the children greeting her when she went outside.
“They stand over here and they call me and they say, ‘Hi, good morning’,” said the woman, who did not give her name. “So sad, terrible. Very sweet kids. Very nice brought up. Beautiful, beautiful family. Very sad.”
Yarimi was headed north on Ocean Parkway in Midwood when she collided with a 2023 Toyota Camry with TLC plates making a right turn off Quintin Road, sparking a crash that Mayor Adams, at a news conference, called a “tragic accident of Shakespearean proportion.”
Video posted on social media shows the moment when the Saada family, who apparently have the light, walk across Ocean Parkway as the Camry stops in front of them.
Just before they reach the median, Yarimi’s Audi blasts through the intersection, slamming into the back of the Camry and ramming the mom and her children.
In January, Yarimi filed a notice of claim indicating she would be suing the city and Coney Island Hospital for $5 million, stemming from an incident in October when NYPD officers pulled her out of bed and brought her to the psychiatric ward.
Yarimi’s case is for false imprisonment, medical malpractice, negligence and deprivation of civil rights for being involuntarily committed for two weeks starting Oct. 9.
In December, Yarimi won a $2 million settlement from the city after she filed a lawsuit alleging NYPD Officer George Mastrokostas repeatedly raped her for several years after falsely arresting her when she was 14, public records show.
Yarimi’s arraignment on charges of manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, assault, reckless driving, aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle, failure to yield to a red light and speeding is pending in Brooklyn Criminal Court as she undergoes psychiatric evaluation.
