Three teens in a speeding Cadillac were killed in a blistering late-night crash with an SUV on the Belt Parkway in Brooklyn, police said Wednesday.
The eastbound black 2002 Cadillac Escalade collided with a black 2024 Honda HR-V near Exit 1 by 65th St. in Bay Ridge about 11:35 p.m. Tuesday and flipped over, cops said.
Medics rushed the five teen boys in the Cadillac to local hospitals. The Cadillac’s 18-year-old driver Aziz Algahem Huzayfah and two of his passengers — Konstantin Gerantidi, 17, and Abdul Rehman, 16 — weren’t wearing seatbelts and were thrown from the Escalade onto the asphalt. They died at NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn, cops said.
Konstantin’s death left his mother and sister “facing unimaginable heartbreak and the pain of saying goodbye far too soon,” a GoFundMe posted by a family friend to pay for funeral expenses says. “Kostya was deeply loved, and this loss has shaken everyone who knew him and cared about his family.”
The teen’s family gathered to mourn at his mother’s apartment in Brighton Beach, where a cousin told the Daily News, “We’re barely holding up.”
“It’s only been 15 hours,” said Konstantin’s cousin, 31-year-old Serj Yu. “He was the last we expected to go this way. He had big dreams. He was a beautiful boy.”
“Everybody’s crying.”
Abdul’s family was also in mourning Wednesday.
“He was a really good boy. He was helping take care of his elderly parents,” Abdul’s cousin Muhammad Usman, 25, told the Daily News.
The three victims lived at separate addresses in Brighton Beach, according to police. One of the surviving teens told police they had been hanging out at a gas station and were preparing to go home when they crashed.
Huzayfah was speeding when he switched from the center to the right lane, cops said. He braked sharply due to a slower moving vehicle in front of him and was rear-ended by the Honda SUV behind him.
The out-of-control Cadillac then hit a guardrail, spun around and overturned, ejecting the three teens who died.
The surviving teens, a 16-year-old boy who lives in Brighton Beach and an 18-year-old man who lives in Coney Island, were wearing seatbelts and survived. They were treated at Maimonides Medical Center.
The Honda became partially wedged under the Cadillac during the crash and also overturned, police said.
The 46-year-old woman driving the HR-V and her passenger, a 44-year-old woman, were taken to NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn in stable condition.
No charges have been filed. Huzayfah had a valid license, police said. He’s received summonses six times in the past, including in January for speeding and making an unsafe lane change on the Belt Parkway, police sources said.
In August of last year, Huzayfah got a summons for speeding and driving on the shoulder on Staten Island. He didn’t answer that summons in court and had his license suspended, but it was eventually restored, the sources said.
