For-hire driver charged after cousins brutally beaten, 1 killed, in front of Brooklyn home
A 33-year-old for hire driver has been charged after two cousins were attacked, and one of them killed, when they got out of the vehicle in Brooklyn on Thursday.
Sergio Zamora-Mendoza, 33, was charged with manslaughter and two counts of assault in the second and third degree.
It happened just after 4:30 a.m. on West 9th Street. Police say Zamora-Mendoza picked up the cousins and a dispute ensued over the fare when they revealed they didn’t have enough money.
Upon arrival, officers found the two men bleeding in front of the home with facial injuries and trauma to the back of their heads.
They were both rushed to Maimonides Hospital in critical condition. A 66-year-old man died at the hospital just 45 minutes later.
He was later identified as Carlos Guaman.
His cousin, a 52-year-old man, said that he was drinking at the time of the incident and was highly intoxicated.
Police say he told officers he didn’t remember what happened or how he even got to the scene of the attack.
Officers reviewed surveillance video from a doorbell camera and they say it showed the men get out of the vehicle and then the driver exited and start hitting the men in the face.
It’s not yet known if a weapon was used.