A Brooklyn man who police said crashed his Mercedes-Benz into a public bus in February and fled the scene, leaving his friend to die on his birthday, has been arrested and charged with multiple felonies two months after the fatal collision.
Michael Rivera, 31, was taken into custody on April 30 on charges of manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, speeding, leaving the scene of a deadly crash, and running a red light.
The crash, which occurred on Feb. 26 in Williamsburg, resulted in the death of Alex Caba, who was celebrating his 33rd birthday with Rivera and other friends when an MTA bus slammed into their candy-red Mercedes, which had just blown through a red light, police said.
Video footage of the crash shows the Mercedes zoom into the intersection at 9:45 p.m., but the car wasn’t fast enough to avoid the oncoming bus.
Five people were in the luxury car at the time of the accident, including the driver, police said.
Caba was the only one who did not survive.
Hours before he was killed, Caba was planning to spend a quiet day at home, but Rivera insisted that they go out to celebrate, according to the victim’s sister, Ivelise Caba.
“He wasn’t planning on going outside,” she told the New York Daily News a day after the tragedy. “He had no intentions of going out. Michael was the one who called him and said, ‘Come out, come out!’ Eventually, my brother was like ‘Alright.’”
