A 55-year-old man who had been driving in Brooklyn Thursday allegedly ran over a 65-year-old man after a fender bender, authorities say, dragging the victim for roughly two blocks before leaving him to die in the road in front of his wife.



Police arrested David Cruz on murder charges after his van and the other vehicle, which the victim's wife was driving, got in a fender-bender in Bay Ridge around 9 p.m. and stopped at the intersection of 65th Street and Third Avenue.

The 65-year-old man, identified as Gavriel Mardaknayevy, of Brooklyn, got out of his wife's car and tried to confront Cruz. He walked in front of Cruz's van, and Cruz allegedly accelerated, striking Mardaknayevy and dragging him for blocks, authorities say.

"He hit him. He hit him and killed him on the spot," said bystander Michael Othman, who witnessed the crash and intervened.

"I just went in front of him and stopped," said Othman.

"I took [the getaway driver] out of the car, grabbed him, threw him on the wall like a cop. Told him, 'Don't move. Are you crazy? You have a dead body!' He didn't know what he was doing," he said.

Another witness, Malook Khaskhaly, said, "The wife was just panicking and crying."

Mardaknayevy was pronounced dead at a hospital.

It wasn't clear if Cruz had an attorney who could comment on the case.