{"id":7504,"date":"2025-10-18T12:02:50","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T12:02:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/7504\/"},"modified":"2025-10-18T12:02:50","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T12:02:50","slug":"suv-driver-arrested-for-murder-for-mowing-down-teen-girl-in-queens-after-lewd-comment-spat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/7504\/","title":{"rendered":"SUV driver arrested for murder for mowing down teen girl in Queens after lewd comment spat"},"content":{"rendered":"

An unlicensed SUV driver accused of intentionally mowing down<\/a> a 16-year-old girl on a Queens sidewalk after a quarrel over a lewd comment he made has been charged with murder, cops said Sunday.<\/p>\n

Edwin Cruz Gomez, 38, of Uniondale, L.I., was taken into custody after driving off and crashing his 2009 gray Chevrolet Suburban a couple of blocks away from the horrific scene in Jackson Heights<\/a> Saturday,<\/a> police said.<\/p>\n

Cruz Gomez is facing a slew of charges including murder, vehicular manslaughter, driving while intoxicated, driving without a valid license, leaving the scene of a fatal crash and four counts of weapon possession.<\/p>\n

He said nothing as he was led in handcuffs by cops from the 110th Precinct stationhouse Sunday. His face appeared bruised from the crash and he was taken to a local hospital, delaying his arraignment in Queens Criminal Court, officials said.<\/p>\n

Police say a rampaging Cruz Gomez vaulted his SUV onto a Queens sidewalk at Roosevelt Ave.<\/a> and Benham St. and slammed into Jhoanny Gomez- Alvarez, 16, and her 32-year-old mother.<\/p>\n

The clash began as Cruz Gomez was standing near his SUV with North Carolina license plates outside a bar beneath the elevated No. 7 subway line as Jhoanny, her mother and two men walked by at around 4:15 a.m.<\/p>\n

An intoxicated Cruz Gomez made a lewd comment to the teen, sparking an argument between him, Jhoanny, her mother and the two men, one of whom is believed to be Jhoanny\u2019s boyfriend, according to police.<\/p>\n

The foursome then walked off, witnesses told police. That\u2019s when Cruz Gomez allegedly jumped into his SUV and pursued them, vaulting the sidewalk and striking mother and daughter.<\/p>\n

Jhoanny died at the scene. Medics took her mother to Elmhurst Hospital in stable condition.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was driving, then he makes a turn and he hits the girl,\u201d a horrified cashier at a nearby deli who witnessed the crash told the Daily News. \u201cHe did it on purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was walking,\u201d she added. \u201cHe hit her in the back. I was working. I came outside and I saw somebody cry and somebody scream \u2026 He hit the girl, then tried to run away. He backed away and he went (down) the wrong-way street.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An unlicensed SUV driver accused of intentionally mowing down a 16-year-old girl on a Queens sidewalk after a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7505,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[6553,6554,6552,6555,9,24,63,122,5192,124,123],"class_list":["post-7504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-cruz-gomez","tag-driving-while-intoxicated","tag-edwin-cruz-gomez","tag-jhoanny-gomez-alvarez","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-criminal-court","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7504","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=7504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}