By Michael Wilson, The New York Times
A nurse from Manhattan was killed Tuesday night when a police car chasing a robbery suspect broadsided her car at an intersection in Queens, the police said yesterday.
The woman, identified as Marie Fares, 55, was riding in the front passenger seat of a car driven by Roger Fares Jr., 18, her son. He suffered minor injuries and was to be released from Elmhurst Hospital Center, hospital officials said. His father, Dr. Roger Fares, 69, who was in the back seat, suffered head injuries and was also at Elmhurst Hospital Center. He had not fully regained consciousness yesterday and did not understand that his wife was dead, according to Raymond Fares, his brother.
Moments before the accident, a robbery had been reported at a cigar shop on Ditmars Boulevard in Astoria, and a description of the getaway car was broadcast over the police radio, the police said. Officers spotted a vehicle matching the description shortly after 11 p.m., at Ditmars and 19th Street, and pursued it with their lights and sirens on, the police said.
The suspect’s vehicle went east on 22nd Road, speeding through a stop sign at 21st Street, the police said. The police car followed, striking the passenger side of the Fares’s car as it headed south through the intersection, the police said.
It was unclear whether the police car had stopped at the stop sign, the police said. There is no stop sign for traffic on 21st Street. The police said they were investigating whether any procedures had been violated.
The police said officers later caught the suspect, whose name was not released yesterday, when he struck a parked car at 72nd Street and 25th Avenue in East Elmhurst.