Ex-Valley Stream man arrested at JFK after evading arrest in fatal crash for 15 years
Cars on the Garden State Parkway in Brick, N.J. in 2023. Credit: AP/Wayne Parry
A former Valley Stream man who eluded authorities for the past 15 years after he was charged in a fatal New Jersey crash was arrested by U.S. Marshals at Kennedy Airport on Christmas Eve, Ocean County prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said Chaudhry Yousaf, 52, was last known to be living in Valley Stream in 2009. New Jersey State Police charged him after a March 28, 2009, crash on the Garden State Parkway in which Yousaf was allegedly driving drunk and lost control while behind the wheel of a black Lincoln Town Car with two passengers, prosecutors said in a news release.
Yousaf was initially charged with driving while intoxicated. He hit a road sign and drove into a tree in a wooded area off the southbound parkway. The charges were elevated to vehicular homicide after one of his passengers, Harris Kahn, 26, of Queens, died the next day. The other passenger was treated for injuries from the crash and released from the hospital.
After the crash, Yousaf was taken from Community Medical Center in Toms River, New Jersey, where he was treated for minor injuries, to the Ocean County Jail, prosecutors said.
The next day, Yousaf posted $150,000 bail set by a judge. He then failed to appear for a Feb. 5, 2010, court appearance, following his indictment on vehicular manslaughter charges. A judge issued a bench warrant for his arrest. Court records showed addresses for him in Valley Stream and Brooklyn.
"He has remained a fugitive from justice since that date — until Dec. 24, 2024, when he was taken into custody in New York City," Ocean County prosecutors said in a news release.
After U.S. Marshals with the New York/New Jersey Regional Fugitive Task Force arrested Yousaf at Kennedy Airport, he was extradited Friday to face charges in New Jersey and is being held at the Ocean County Jail.
Yousaf’s public defender could not be reached for comment. Ocean County prosecutors and the Marshals Service did not say where he had been for the past 15 years.
John Asbury is a breaking news and general assignment reporter. He has been with Newsday since 2014 and previously worked at The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, California.
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