Alleged Red-Light-Running Killer Arrested

City police have arrested a 41-year-old Branford man for allegedly speeding through a red light, crashing into a car that had the green, and then fleeing the scene — resulting in the death of 64-year-old Nader Elias ​“Nick” Hanania.

Police Chief Karl Jacobson, Mayor Justin Elicker, and Lt. Brian McDermott announced that arrest at a Thursday morning press conference at police headquarters at 1 Union Ave.

Standing alongside Hanania’s family, friends, and attorney, they said that, on July 2, police arrested the 41-year-old suspect for crashing into Hanania’s car soon before 5 a.m. on July 10, 2024, at the intersection of South Frontage Road and College Street.

Hanania, a father of two from West Haven, was at work as a medical courier at the time. He died from injuries sustained during the crash. The arrested suspect, meanwhile, allegedly drove as fast as 62 miles per hour in a 25 mile-per-hour zone just seconds before the crash. He also allegedly was disqualified from having a license because of past motor vehicle violations, and allegedly fled the scene after the fatal crash.

“Nick was the heart and soul of our family,” Hanania’s ex-wife Samaher Hanania said through tears. He had a ​“presence that brought peace, laughter, and warmth wherever he went.” He was ​“selfless, humble, and full of love,” she added. ​“Everyone who knew Nick felt goodness. … Losing Nick has left a hole that can never be filled.”

Elicker described the suspect’s fatally reckless driving as ​“unconscionable” and his alleged fleeing of the scene as ​“unforgivable.” ​“Drive safely. Drive slowly, within the speed limit,” he said.

The suspect has been charged with manslaughter in the first degree, evading responsibility resulting in death, reckless endangerment in the first degree, reckless driving, operating an unregistered motor vehicle, street racing, operating under suspension, insufficient insurance, and failure to obey a red traffic signal.

He has not yet entered pleas to any of those charges, and is currently being held on a $500,000 bond.

An arrest warrant affidavit written by Sgt. Karl Rindfleisch on July 2, and obtained by the Independent on Thursday, shed further light on what police believe happened before, during, and after that fatal crash. 

According to Rindfleisch’s affidavit, at around 4:57 a.m. on July 10, 2024, city police responded to the area of 100 College St. on the report of a traffic collision.

Upon arrival, officers found a silver 2021 Toyota Supra with a New Jersey temporary license plate. The vehicle was unoccupied and had suffered front end damage. Police also found a 2016 Hyundai Accent with a Connecticut plate. That latter vehicle was occupied by Nader Hanania, and had damage to the passenger side doors. Both vehicles were at the southeast corner of the intersection of College and South Frontage Road.

Hanania was transported by ambulance to Yale New Haven Hospital’s York Street campus, where he was pronounced dead less than half an hour later. A medical examiner’s report identified the cause of death as blunt force trauma to the head, neck, torso, and extremities, and the manner of death as ​“accident (car struck by vehicle that evaded scene.)” A toxicology report for Hanania indicated ​“no positive findings for any substance.”

Officers D. Mansingh and J. D’Ascanio, both of whom responded to the crash scene, recognized the Toyota Supra ​“based on the distinct custom stickers in the rear glass, which was shattered from the collision.” They recognized that vehicle as having been stopped by police three days prior, at 1:58 a.m. on July 7; the driver at the time, the same person who would ultimately be arrested for Hanania’s death, was found on July 7 to have a ​“disqualified” Connecticut driver’s license. That means that his license has been suspended so many times that he can’t ever get a legal license in Connecticut again.

Police then reviewed city camera footage from the July 10 crash. That video showed the Toyota Supra traveling east on South Frontage and into the College Street intersection ​“while having a red traffic signal.” At the same time, the blue Hyundai, traveling south on College, traveled into the same intersection while it had the green light. The two vehicles then collided.

Surveillance video footage from 100 College St. then showed the Toyota Supra’s driver — a man wearing a black t‑shirt, dark shorts, and white socks — exit the vehicle and walk to the sidewalk. ​“A short time later a red Dodge Challenger pulls up and the Supra’s driver enters the passenger side of the Challenger” and they left the area by going east on South Frontage, without having made any effort to report the car crash.

Police wound up talking to several people who witnessed the crash, as well.

One said he was getting out of his car on College Street at the time when he saw a Toyota Supra ​“traveling at a high rate of speed and run a red light at the intersection” of South Frontage and College before crashing into a blue Hyundai. The witness saw the Toyota’s driver get out of the car.

Another witness said he saw the exact same thing.

A third said he heard a ​“loud bang” while walking on College. He said he saw a man exit the Toyota, walk east on South Frontage, and then place ​“an unknown item by a fence further down the street” before returning moments later to pick it up.

Still a fourth witness, who asked to remain anonymous, said that he was stopped at a red light at South Frontage near Career High school when he saw a vehicle pull up next to him ​“and the operator nodded his head and moved his hands in a manner that he took to mean the other car wanted to race.” This fourth witness said he did not want to race and did not know the other driver. 

When the light turned green, ​“the Supra took off at a high rate of speed.” City camera footage appeared to show a gold Chevrolet Impala ​“also take off at a high rate of speed along side the Supra.” When the fourth witness approached the South Frontage and York intersection, ​“he could see smoke in the distance.” He said he saw the crash at College and South Frontage, realized that the Toyota was the same one from earlier when the driver had been indicating he wanted to race. 

The witness then said a man — who he believed to be the Toyota driver police subsequently arrested — walked up to his vehicle, ​“grabbed the passenger side door,” opened it, got inside, and asked to be taken to East Haven. The witness said he dropped the man off near the Domino’s Pizza on Foxon Boulevard.

The witness said the man who got in his car was wearing a ski mask. He did not select the Toyota driver or anyone else from a photo array subsequently presented to him by police.

Still a fifth person, who also asked to remain anonymous, called police later on July 10 and said that the Toyota driver had confessed to hitting and killing someone with his car. The person reported that the man was ​“a drug addict” who operates ​“vehicles in a reckless manner.”

Police contacted the suspect at 7:32 a.m. that same day in East Haven. The man declined to make a statement, and requested an attorney be present.

State police records, meanwhile, showed that the Toyota driver had been arrested on June 1 on charges of illegal operation of a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and illegal operation of a motor vehicle under suspension. During an interview with state police as part of that arrest, the Toyota driver reportedly said that the Supra was his car and ​“he likes to race.”

Data obtained by police from the Toyota Supra then showed that, 5 seconds before the crash, the car was traveling at 62 miles per hour and was decelerating with the service brake on. The car was traveling at around 44 miles per hour at the time of the crash.

On Feb. 21, the Toyota driver came to the city police department and was arrested on an unrelated warrant from Clinton for failure to appear in the second degree. DNA swabs of the Toyota driver were overwhelmingly similar to DNA swabs of the Toyota’s steering wheel and shifter.

At Thursday’s presser, Mayor Elicker said that the city is about to undertake $2.5 million worth of state-funded improvements to this stretch of South Frontage Road. That construction work should take place later this year, and will see a narrowed roadway, raised intersections, a protected bike lane, and ADA-accessible curb cuts. 

The city is also still looking to install 19 automated traffic enforcement cameras — including 11 cameras focused on ticketing drivers who go through red lights — at various locations across the city, including nearby at South Frontage and Park Street. City spokesperson Lenny Speiller said that the city’s transportation department plans on submitting the city’s revised red-light-and-speeding-camera plan to the state Department of Transportation (DOT) by the end of the month. Then, the DOT has up to 60 days to review the plan.