A Brooklyn man who police said crashed his Mercedes-Benz into a public bus in February and fled the scene, leaving his friend to die on his birthday, has been arrested and charged with multiple felonies two months after the fatal collision.
Michael Rivera, 31, was taken into custody on April 30 on charges of manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, speeding, leaving the scene of a deadly crash, and running a red light.
The crash, which occurred on Feb. 26 in Williamsburg, resulted in the death of Alex Caba, who was celebrating his 33rd birthday with Rivera and other friends when an MTA bus slammed into their candy-red Mercedes, which had just blown through a red light, police said.
Video footage of the crash shows the Mercedes zoom into the intersection at 9:45 p.m., but the car wasn’t fast enough to avoid the oncoming bus.
Five people were in the luxury car at the time of the accident, including the driver, police said.
Caba was the only one who did not survive.
Hours before he was killed, Caba was planning to spend a quiet day at home, but Rivera insisted that they go out to celebrate, according to the victim’s sister, Ivelise Caba.
“He wasn’t planning on going outside,” she told the New York Daily News a day after the tragedy. “He had no intentions of going out. Michael was the one who called him and said, ‘Come out, come out!’ Eventually, my brother was like ‘Alright.’”
Caba was killed when he was thrown from the window of the fast-moving car after the driver ran the red light at Harrison Avenue and Lorimer Street, police said.
Seconds before the accident, police said Rivera was speeding south on Harrison when he ignored the red light at Lorimer, and the B48 bus plowed into the car in the middle of the intersection.
The bus driver, who was heading eastbound on Lorimer, had the right of way when he rammed the rear passenger side of the Mercedes, causing the car to spin out of control before careening into a Citi Bike kiosk on the sidewalk, where it screeched to a halt.
Caba, who was among those seated in the back, was ejected from the car on impact, his body thrown like a ragdoll to the pavement, police said.
According to authorities, Caba was still alive shortly after the crash but ultimately died from massive injuries to his body.
It didn’t appear that the victim was struck by any other moving vehicles, and no other casualties were reported on the bus or elsewhere.
As Caba lay dying, police said Rivera and the three other passengers from the wreck fled the scene on foot.
It was not immediately clear if the Mercedes was registered to Rivera, who vanished as police announced they were searching for the driver of the car, although no new developments were announced in the case for two months.
Authorities did not immediately provide details about how they finally caught up with Rivera.
Ivelise Caba told the Daily News she was still in shock over her brother’s death.
“These have honestly just been two months of shock, still in disbelief,” she said. “It’s hard to have someone come home every day and then gone.”
Ivelise Caba said that since the accident, Rivera went off the radar and never came back to their house to explain what happened.
“He has been hiding,” she said. “He continued to live his life as if nothing happened.”
Caba and Rivera lived just five blocks apart in Williamsburg, less than a mile from the crash site.
The Cabas said they were perplexed by Rivera’s actions, and questioned why he would turn his back on a dying friend.
“He just left his friend to die. As a friend, you should want to stay and help,” Caba’s mother, Olga, said in February. “They ran away. They left Alex alone.”
Rivera remains jailed and is currently awaiting arraignment in Brooklyn Criminal Court.
