Singaporean in New York hit-and-run no longer in critical condition: sister
Yahoo! Newsroom/Screengrab from Facebook – Singaporean hit by vehicle chased by police in New York suffers critical injuries.
[UPDATE June 11, 11:40am: Adding update from Al-Matin’s elder sister]
A 24-year-old Singaporean man remains in the intensive care unit after a driver, who was fleeing police following a violent robbery, mowed him down in New York.
According to Al-Matin Mohamed’s elder sister Karina Sydney Nadiah, he is no longer in critical condition but will need to go through “a few more surgeries” this week, having suffered multiple fractures.
“He will recover, that’s for sure, and should undergo rehab(ilitation) in the next few week(s), and during which I do hope we all can encourage him as he starts the challenge,” she wrote in a post on Al-Matin’s Facebook profile wall.
She also expressed her thanks for numerous posts and messages from Al-Matin’s friends expressing concern online, adding that Al-Matin’s ward is under round-the-clock police guard. “He did not give up on us, neither did he give up on himself,” she wrote. “We all know that being the guardsman he is, the fighting spirit never died.”
Al-Matin Mohamed, who moved to New York to train as a pastry chef, is currently at Bellevue Hospital, where he is being treated for head trauma, two broken legs, a fractured pelvis and an injured arm.
According to U.S. newspaper New York Daily News, Al-Matin was cycling along East 29th Street when a tan 2004 Infiniti sped towards him from the wrong way at about 6:30 pm last Saturday. The car hit Al-Matin, tossing him across the street and onto the sidewalk. New York police said the driver peeled away but crashed into a building at Lexington Avenue, where he escaped.
Eyewitness Cecilia Cargill, 36, said, “His [Al-Matin’s] feet were on the sidewalk. The rest of his body was on the street. He was fighting, fighting, fighting.” Cargill added, “At first he was unconscious, but then he opened his eyes. I told him not to give up… He was dying. I started praying.” “He looked into my eyes as I was praying for him. It looked like he was saying, ‘I’m dying, pray for me.’ ”
The escaping suspect also ran over a police officer’s foot and knocked over a pedestrian, the newspaper reported. Police said the chaos erupted moments earlier when the driver and an accomplice mugged a 27-year-old man outside Pennsylvania Station.
Police are still hunting for the suspect, described as a 6-foot-tall black man in his 20s.
Fighter
Upon reading about the tragedy, many of Al-Matin’s friends showed support by posting words of encouragement on his Facebook wall, describing him as a “strong” man, a “fighter” and someone who will “never give up”.
Lau Kar Loon, 24, who was in the same platoon as Al-Matin while serving National Service, described him as a very “self-disciplined” and “ambitious” person. Lau also said Al-Martin was a “natural leader” and “one of the most outstanding cadets” in his platoon. Al-Martin served as a guardsman.
He is on a one-month stint with pastry chefs at Le Bernardin in New York. He recently transferred there from a similar apprenticeship at a restaurant in Australia. Prior to that, Al-Matin studied in Le Cordon Bleu in Sydney and Anglo-Chinese Junior College, where he was the school’s football captain.
