Hit-and-run suspect faces manslaughter charge

<p>The Deer Park man accused of killing an Adelphi honor student last year after fleeing the scene of a fender bender and dragging her with his car faces manslaughter and other charges, according to an indictment unsealed Monday.</p>

News 12 Staff

Apr 9, 2018, 5:35 PM

Updated 2,448 days ago

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The Deer Park man accused of killing an Adelphi honor student last year after fleeing the scene of a fender bender and dragging her with his car faces manslaughter and other charges, according to an indictment unsealed Monday.
Prosecutors say 31-year-old Daniel Coppolo, of Deer Park, was supposed to be exchanging insurance information with the victim, 18-year-old Taranjit Parmar. She was holding onto the door, awaiting his information, when police say he shifted gears and drove off.
According to prosecutors, he dragged Parmar with his red pickup truck, leading to her death. They say he admitted to police that he left the scene, and surveillance video shows the truck, which police later found abandoned in a Westbury parking lot. Coppolo's lawyer says his client did not admit to running Parmar over.
Coppolo, a communications officer for the FDNY at the time, was on psychiatric leave and had gone off of his medication for manic depression, his lawyer says.
Parmar's mother and other relatives attended the court hearing Monday and left without speaking to reporters. In December, her father told News 12 that the incident seemed senseless.
"You try to comprehend why things happen, but there's things with no explanation," he said.
The judge continued Coppolo's $1 million bond.