Getaway driver sentenced in guard’s death

A Springfield Gardens man who acted as a getaway driver for two accomplices attempting to rob a Jamaica clothing store in May 2007 has been sentenced to nine years in state prison for hitting a store security guard with his vehicle as the three attempted to make their escape. The security guard died three days later.
Philip J. Zabriskie, 52, pleaded guilty last month to first-degree assault before Queens Supreme Court Justice Robert J. Hanophy who imposed the determinate sentence of nine years in prison.
The District Attorney said that, in pleading guilty, Zabriskie admitted that he participated in the theft of clothing and other items from the Pretty Girl clothing store, located at 162-21 Jamaica Avenue, at approximately 1:10 p.m. on Monday, May 14, 2007.
As the three suspected shoplifters tried to make their escape in a Plymouth Voyager minivan that the defendant was driving, 52-year-old Awali Khouroupra, a security guard employed by the store, attempted to stop them by holding onto the hood of the getaway vehicle. The defendant then, with depraved indifference, began driving his vehicle recklessly, said the DA, causing Khouroupra to fall to the pavement and strike his head.
Khouroupra was transported to a local hospital where he died three days later from a massive brain hemorrhage.