It took nearly half a decade, but the NYPD has finally closed a Queens cold case investigation into a fatal hit-and-run collision that killed a South Ozone Park senior in the 106th Precinct in 2019.
Naquan Young, 46, was arrested on a fugitive warrant and extradited back to Queens where he was booked at the 112th Precinct in Forest Hills on Thursday afternoon. Young was arraigned in Queens Criminal Court on a grand jury indictment secured by Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz in December 2023.
Young, a resident of 135th Place in South Ozone Park at the time of the incident, was charged with manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, assault, and leaving the scene of a fatal incident without reporting. These charges stemmed from a fatal crash on the early morning of Tuesday, September 10, 2019, at the intersection of 126th Street and 111th Avenue, resulting in the death of 72-year-old Gilda Lascano.
Young was allegedly behind the wheel of a 2004 Lexus RX330 that was traveling westbound on 111th Avenue when he blew through a steady red traffic light at 126th Street at around 1:13 a.m. and struck a 2002 Honda CRV driven by 56-year-old Duvis Villa-Escorcia, traveling northbound on 126th Street.
The victim, who lived just seven blocks south of Young on 126th Street and halfway down 126th Street from the scene of the collision, was a passenger in the Honda. She was ejected from the vehicle before it crashed into Elegant Floral Design, located at 125-19 111th Avenue, while Young ran away from the scene on foot down 111th Avenue.
Police from the 106th Precinct responded to a 911 call of a vehicle collision at the location and found Lascano lying on the roadway with severe trauma to the body. EMS arrived and pronounced her dead at the scene and transported Villa-Escorcia to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, where she was listed in stable condition. Young had been arrested on an unrelated drunk driving charge in Pennsylvania. Members of the NYPD Regional Fugitive Task Force took him into custody and brought him back to Queens. Following his Friday morning arraignment, Young was remanded into custody without bail and ordered to return to court on July 25.
