NYFD employee held on $1M bail in crash turned deadly

A New York Fire Department employee was held on $1 million bail Sunday after authorities said he ran over a college honors student on Long Island after a minor accident.

Daniel Coppolo, 31, of Deer Park, pleaded not guilty in the Nov. 9 accident that resulted in the death of 18-year-old Taranjit Parmar of Levittown.

Judge Eileen Goggin set bail at $1 million, well above the $600,000 bail requested by prosecutors in First District Court in Hempstead.

In court papers, police authorities said Coppolo was driving a car in Levittown when it was involved in a minor accident with a Jeep driven by Parmar.

Taranjit Parmar, 18, was killed in November after police say she was involved in a minor accident that turned deadly 

Cops say FDNY employee Daniel Coppolo, 31, dragged Parmar's body 25 to 50 feet before she was run over by his vehicle 

Cops say FDNY employee Daniel Coppolo, 31, dragged Parmar’s body 25 to 50 feet before she was run over by his vehicle 

Police say Coppolo tried to clean up his car to remove any evidence of wrong doing 

Police say Coppolo tried to clean up his car to remove any evidence of wrong doing 

They said Coppolo initially got out of the vehicle to assess the damage but refused to call police to report the accident or exchange information with Parmar.

He then got in his vehicle and tried to leave the scene as Parmar held onto the handle of his driver’s side door and asked him to stay, court papers said.

Instead, police said, he fled through a parking lot ‘operating his vehicle in an extremely reckless manor while the victim was holding onto the car.’

After the victim was dragged between 25 and 50 feet, her body was run over by the rear driver’s side tire, police said of the encounter that was captured on video. 

Parmar was declared dead at a hospital.

Parmar was a dental student at Adelphi University and her father told PIX11 she  ‘bore all the responsibility to carry the family and carry her education.’ 

He thanks officers that stayed on his daughter’s case: ‘It wouldn’t be where it is if it weren’t for the hard work by all the detectives that worked on this investigation.’ 

Defense attorney Lawrence Carra said he hasn’t seen credible evidence that his client, a fire department dispatcher who was on medical leave from the job for the last several months, was the driver of the vehicle that ran over Parmar.

Coppolo was arrested Saturday and is being held on $1million bond 

Coppolo was arrested Saturday and is being held on $1million bond 

Carra called the death a ‘true tragedy’ and offered condolences to Parmar’s family.

But he said he’ll wait until he sees all the evidence to decide how to proceed with the defense of a man with a history of mental problems.

‘We’re keeping an open mind,’ he said.

He said Coppolo was arrested Saturday as he was being released on $2,500 bail on a robbery charge in an unrelated case. Carra said he was interrogated by two homicide detectives.

Coppolo was charged with manslaughter, leaving the scene of an accident, tampering with physical evidence and reckless endangerment.

The tampering charge resulted because authorities claimed that Coppolo applied a fresh coat of wax or other substance to his fender to hide that an accident had occurred, the lawyer said.



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