Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - The Buffalo Police Department and Erie County District Attorney's Office are investigating a fatal overnight crash at Main Street and Humboldt Parkway that left two people dead and three others injured.
Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia says at around 12:15 a.m. ET early Thursday morning, a Dodge Magnum, driven by 23-year-old Devin Ford of Buffalo, was traveling Northbound on Main Street at an excessive rate of speed with no headlights on. One of Gramaglia's patrol lieutenants, at the time, was traveling Southbound on Main Street when he had Ford driving past him.
"When that supervisor went to do a U-turn in an attempt to stop that vehicle, that vehicle, at that point, collided with another vehicle at the intersection of Main and Humboldt. The supervisor didn't even have an opportunity to turn around, so there was no pursuit involved in this," noted Gramaglia during a press briefing on Thursday.
The Dodge Magnum struck a Toyota Corolla that was traveling Westbound on Humboldt Parkway and turning left onto Main Street. The driver of the Corolla from Buffalo was working, at the time, as a ride-share driver with Lyft and had three passengers in the car from Ohio.
"The Lyft driver, who was a [27-year-old] male, was severely injured, transported to the hospital, and later was pronounced deceased at the hospital. The rear seat passenger of that Lyft vehicle, a [26-year-old] female passenger of Ohio, was transported to ECMC and also declared deceased," Gramaglia detailed. "There were two male passengers - one in the front seat passenger side, one in the rear seat passenger side - both 31-years-old, both of Ohio, they were both injured. One of the passengers was last listed in critical condition, the other passenger was listed in stable condition."
The Buffalo Police Department have identified the deceased on Friday as Nasir Musazada, 27, of Buffalo and Morgan Ehrenbeit, 26, of Chagrin Falls, Ohio.
The two other passengers in the vehicle are from Eastlake, Ohio, where police say they remain hospitalized at ECMC at this time. One of the passengers remains in critical condition, and the other in stable condition.
Gramaglia says the three passengers were in town for a concert at Buffalo RiverWorks, and had responsibly called for the Lyft to take them back to an Airbnb they were staying at. It is unclear, at this time, if any of the passengers were related to one another, but Gramaglia notes the three in the Lyft did have different last names.
As for Ford, he was taken to ECMC to be treated for injuries, where he was taken into police custody and arraigned on Thursday.
Ford is accused of recklessly causing the death of the driver and a passenger of the other vehicle, and was arraigned before Buffalo City Court Judge Phillip Dabney, Jr. on the following:
- Two counts of Manslaughter in the Second Degree (Class "C" felony);
- Two counts of Assault in the First Degree (Class "B" felonies);
- Four New York State Vehicle and Traffic Law violations for speeding, driving without a valid license, driving without insurance and failure to use headlights.
Erie County District Attorney John Flynn says the Dodge vehicle Ford was driving at the time of the crash was not a stolen vehicle.
"We're still trying to ascertain who's the owner of that vehicle, but we have no indication right now that it was stolen," said Flynn on Thursday. "We are looking into whether or not there was any alcohol or drugs involved. That obviously will come at a later time, and we can tweak the charges as they occur. But as of right now, whenever I have a car that is driving at an excessive rate of speed under the conditions, on a city street that is a 30 miles an hour speed limit street, and causes, allegedly, a motor vehicle accident where two people die, I don't need to wait, quite frankly, for any toxicology test or any alcohol-related test. I have enough right there for a straight-up regular Manslaughter in the Second Degree under a reckless theory."
Ford is scheduled to return to court on Wednesday, March 27 at 9:30 a.m. ET for a felony hearing. He was held without bail. A temporary order of protection was issued on behalf of the injured victims.
If convicted of the highest charge, Ford faces a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison.
"As you can imagine, this investigation, it's extensive, it's ongoing. There's a lot of investigation that has to be done, there's a lot of video canvass that's being done, that will continue to be done," Commissioner Gramaglia said. "We are working on obtaining, with the District Attorney's assistance, a search warrant for the vehicles. We will be downloading the black boxes of the vehicles, the infotainment centers and everything that goes along with that. That does take some time."
