The brother of a coward who hailed a cab and fled while his girlfriend burned to death in his car says the man is a “hero.”
25-year-old Harleen Grewel, of Astoria, died in a fiery crash on the Gowanus Expressway in Brooklyn Friday morning.
Police say Saeed Ahmed, 23, was speeding westbound near Centre Street in Red Hook when his 2007 Infiniti G35 crashed into a concrete barrier.
Video obtained by ABC 7 shows the car fully engulfed in flames as Ahmad hailed a cab nearby.
“Can I get a ride?” Ahmed is heard asking the cab driver before fleeing, leaving Grewel to die in the front passenger seat of his car.
Police caught up with Ahmed at Maimonides Hospital in Borough Park, where he was treated for minor burns.
He was later arrested on charges of criminally negligent homicide, leaving the scene of an accident, and driving without a license.
Ahmed’s brother insists he is a hero for attempting to save Grewel before hailing a cab and leaving the scene.
“He did not just run away from the scene. He lost his phone in the car [and was] unable to call the ambulance,” said Waheed Ahmad, 21.
Waheed claims his brother waited as long as he could, but he left to get treatment when help took too long to arrive.
“He tried to get her out. That’s how his hands and his legs and his neck got burned. He couldn’t get her out. The fire got too crazy. It just burned so quick,” said Waheed.
Waheed said Saeed “was in pain” and he took a taxi and left since “the ambulance wasn’t coming”.
