{"id":207502,"date":"2026-04-23T18:34:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T18:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/207502\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T18:34:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T18:34:09","slug":"driver-arrested-in-car-meet-up-that-wreaked-havoc-at-nyc-intersection-cops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/207502\/","title":{"rendered":"Driver arrested in car meet-up that wreaked havoc at NYC intersection: cops"},"content":{"rendered":"

A reckless driver who allegedly helped wreak havoc at a Queens intersection in a wild car meet-up <\/a>surrendered to police Thursday \u2014 after video of the fiery mayhem sparked an uproar, cops and sources said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Asil Assaidi, 22, was charged by cops with reckless endangerment, riot, criminal mischief and other raps for the unhinged Saturday gathering<\/a> at the Eliot Avenue and 69th Street intersection along the Maspeth-Middle Village border, police said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sources said Assaidi was allegedly caught on video doing doughnuts in a blue Infiniti during the lawless street takeover in the neighborhood that locals described as otherwise \u201csleepy.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Asil Assaidi, 22, faces reckless endangerment and other raps for his role in the reckless Saturday street takeover at Eliot Avenue and 69th Street, police said. Instagram\/@philwongnyc<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will continue to go after anyone causing chaos and endangering the lives of New Yorkers,\u201d the NYPD posted on X<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The arrest came after the department released photos and videos of a young-looking crew<\/a> \u2013 three of them donning keffiyehs \u2013 suspected of unleashing the mayhem involved in the street takeover.<\/p>\n

Footage taken at the shocking scene showed one brazen motorist apparently waving a Palestinian flag as he burned rubber \u2013 narrowly missing those standing around while the car made donuts around a ring of fire in the middle of the street.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Two men even jumped on the hood of a marked NYPD vehicle, causing damage and cracking the windshield, before speeding off in a black Nissan, police said.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, police impounded two of the vehicles \u2013 including the blue Infiniti and a purple one \u2013 linked to the reckless gathering, authorities said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Asil Assaidi, 22, was hit with reckless endangerment, riot, criminal mischief and other charges. NYPD<\/p>\n

In total, one woman and seven men were allegedly involved, according to the department.<\/p>\n

\u201cToo often there are no consequences in the criminal justice system for this type of outrageous behavior. Clearly, it\u2019s time for that to change,\u201d Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch wrote on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Two men even jumped on the hood of a marked department vehicle during the brazen gathering, police said. NYPD<\/p>\n

Police are still looking to track down several other suspects. NYPD<\/p>\n

\u201cMy hope and expectation is that Asil Assaidi will be held fully accountable for his actions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Council Member Phil Wong, who represents the area, said in a statement that Assaidi\u2019s arrest marked \u201can important first step toward holding those responsible accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The NYPD previously released photos of three street takeover suspects donning keffiyehs. NYPD<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happened was reckless, dangerous, and completely unacceptable,\u201d he added. \u201cThis individual is not the only one who will face consequences. More arrests are coming, and they should. Anyone who participated in this chaos and endangered lives must be held accountable.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wong \u2013 who met with Tisch this week \u2013 echoed his earlier calls for more cops on the beat to prevent such chaos on local streets.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will continue to go after anyone causing chaos and endangering the lives of New Yorkers,\u201d the NYPD said. youtube\/@PhilWongNYC<\/p>\n

He said Tuesday that cops had been patrolling a previous car meet-up in the Elmhurst and Corona area and there weren\u2019t enough police cruisers to get to the fiery scene in time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But an NYPD spokesperson said officers responded to the scene within a minute of receiving the 911 calls and \u201cimmediately began dispersing the gathering.\u201d<\/p>\n

The location doesn\u2019t have a documented history of drag racing or car meetups, the department said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe NYPD has a robust and aggressive plan to deter and stop car meet-ups and the vast majority of them are shut down without incident,\u201d police posted on X, alongside the arrest announcement. \u201cSo far this year, we have shut down 61 incidents, making 51 arrests and seizing 62 cars.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A reckless driver who allegedly helped wreak havoc at a Queens intersection in a wild car meet-up surrendered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":207503,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3283,8141,303,57,9,24,55,54,56,122,10024,58],"class_list":["post-207502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-arrests","tag-cars","tag-crime","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-queens","tag-reckless-driving","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207502\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}