By Jeremy Walsh
An Astoria woman and a livery cab driver were killed when their vehicle was T-boned in Astoria Sunday morning by an alleged drunk driver who is a suspect in a two-year-old Manhattan murder case, police said.
At 3:10 a.m., Daryush Omar, 24, of Plainview, L.I., was headed westbound on 31st Avenue when he smashed into the side of the livery cab headed southbound on 34th Street in Astoria, police said. Demetriou Panayiota, 30, and the cab driver, Bessy Velasquez, 41, of Brooklyn, were both pronounced dead at Mt. Sinai Hospital, police said.
Omar was arrested at the scene on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, driving while intoxicated and driving with a suspended license, police said.
He is also one of suspects in the beating death of a man outside a Chelsea nightclub in a 2006 robbery, according to authorities.
