A Brooklyn wigmaker accused of running down a mother and her two young daughters in a devastating crash has been charged with manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide, authorities said Sunday.
Miriam Yarimi, 32, was allegedly driving her Audi A4 with a suspended license when she plowed into a crowd of pedestrians in Gravesend on Saturday, killing a mother and her daughters, ages 8 and 4, as they left Shabbat services. The woman’s 4-year-old son remains in critical condition, police said.
Yarimi now faces three counts of second-degree manslaughter, three counts of criminally negligent homicide, and four counts of second-degree assault. Additional charges include reckless driving, aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle, failure to yield on red, and exceeding the speed limit, police confirmed.
The fatal crash unfolded when Yarimi’s vehicle collided with a Toyota Camry driven by an Uber driver, sending her Audi careening into nine pedestrians in a busy crosswalk. The incident occurred on Ocean Parkway in a predominantly Orthodox Jewish neighborhood.
Yarimi, a mother of one, is known professionally as a wigmaker, a fact reflected on her Audi’s custom license plate, which reads “WIGM8KER.” Online records reveal a troubling driving history, with over 93 traffic violations linked to the car, including 20 speeding tickets and more than $10,000 in fines. Records show that just days before the fatal crash, on March 16, she was ticketed for speeding through a Brooklyn school zone.
When reporters visited her Brooklyn home, a family friend declined to comment on Yarimi but expressed concern for the surviving child. “He needs our prayers. He’s in the hospital. He needs our prayers,” the friend said.
Yarimi previously made headlines for settling a lawsuit against the NYPD for $2 million after alleging that she was sexually assaulted by an officer at the age of 14.
As the community mourns the victims of Saturday’s crash, prosecutors are expected to push for serious penalties in light of Yarimi’s driving history and the tragedy’s scale.
