{"id":45392,"date":"2025-11-19T22:46:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T22:46:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/45392\/"},"modified":"2025-11-19T22:46:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T22:46:07","slug":"brute-who-crushed-rival-to-death-with-his-own-car-in-nyc-brawl-sent-to-prison-for-shocking-cruelty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/45392\/","title":{"rendered":"Brute who crushed rival to death with his own car in NYC brawl sent to prison for &#8216;shocking cruelty&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A Bronx man will serve 24 years in prison for killing a man whose car he stole \u2014 then drove it over his unconscious victim in a \u201cshocking\u201d act of afternoon violence, prosecutors said Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>Zahir Williams, 26, pleaded guilty in October to first-degree manslaughter for killing Francisco Ortega, 50, \u2014 a man whom he\u2019d argued with outside an Astoria Boulevard nightclub a night earlier \u2014 in the depraved Oct. 20, 2023 attack, according to the Queens District Attorney\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n<p>Williams and two other men ambushed Ortega after the doomed man his BMW sedan at a red light at Steinway Street and Astoria Boulevard at 3:55 p.m, authorities said.<\/p>\n<p>As Ortega spoke with Williams and another man outside of the vehicle, Pennsylvania resident Aaron Mayers\u00a0approached him from behind and punched him in the back of the head, according to prosecutors. Williams and the others then repeatedly kicked and punched Ortega as he lay on the ground, the DA\u2019s office says.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.77777778;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"37712897\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/50-year-old-brooklyn-man-115740291.jpg\" alt=\"A damaged dark car being towed away on a city street.\" class=\"wp-image-37712897\"  \/>Williams fled the scene on foot after running over his victim in the dead man\u2019s own BMW, prosecutors say.  ABC 7<\/p>\n<p>The twisted attack then escalated even further as Williams stepped over the unconscious man and into the BMW, which he drove around the block \u2014 before accelerating it over the defenseless victim\u2019s body, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n<p>Ortega was still alive after being punched and kicked, and it was Williams running him over that killed him, according to the New York City Medical Examiner\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n<p>The killing was a \u201can act of shocking cruelty and violence,\u201d Queens DA Melinda Katz said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>Williams allegedly dragged Ortega\u2019s body several feet before crashing into a parked car and fleeing on foot, according to the DA\u2019s office.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.50146628;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"37712896\" width=\"886\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/50-year-old-brooklyn-man-115741162.jpg\" alt=\"A police vehicle on a city street, with an &quot;ORGILL&quot; truck and news text overlay &quot;MAN CHARGED WITH MURDER IN ASTORIA, QUEENS HIT-AND-RUN.&quot;\" class=\"wp-image-37712896\"  \/>Williams pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the first degree after admitting to the shocking slaying. ABC 7<\/p>\n<p>Charges against Mayers are still pending.<\/p>\n<p>A court-appointed lawyer who repped Williams at his sentencing did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Bronx man will serve 24 years in prison for killing a man whose car he stole \u2014&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45393,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3814,6070,57,9,56,63,65,64,122,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-45392","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-astoria","9":"tag-manslaughter","10":"tag-metro","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-ny","13":"tag-nyc","14":"tag-nyc-headlines","15":"tag-nyc-news","16":"tag-queens","17":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45392","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=45392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}