A mother and her 10-year-old daughter were killed after an alleged drunk driver crashed into their vehicle.
31-year-old Diana Granobles was driving with her daughter Isabella on Saturday, July 24, when the alleged drunk driver, 42-year-old Tyrone Absolam rammed into their car.
Absolam was traveling with his 38-year-old girlfriend and her two children, a 12-year-old boy, and a 16-year-old girl.
On Saturday night, Diana, a resident of Copiague on Long Island, was on her way to pick up her husband from work in her 2019 Chevrolet Cruz when Absolam slammed his 2018 Nissan Altima into her vehicle.
The fatal crash happened just outside John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens, where Diana’s husband, Lorozano Granobles, works as an aviation mechanic.
Officers who responded to the scene found the mother and daughter unresponsive with severe trauma. The duo was rushed to the Jamaica Hospital where they were later pronounced dead.
Absolam and his girlfriend, who was not named, were also taken to the Jamaica Hospital and were reported to be continuing in critical condition on Sunday.
His girlfriend's two children were taken by ambulance to Cohen Children's Medical Center. They are listed in serious but stable condition, police told Daily Mail.
Absolam is now facing charges including manslaughter, vehicular manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, assault, and driving while intoxicated. However, investigators are awaiting lab results to officially determine whether the blood-alcohol content in his body was past the legal limit.
Diana and her husband immigrated to New York from Colombia when she was just 18.
"They were like the American dream," said Brittany Acensio, a relative of Diana's husband.
"We just want justice," the 24-year-old added. "We don't want that to happen to anyone else."
Lorozano's brother, Jonathan Granobles told PIX 11: "I'm going to be without my niece, my sister-in-law. They're never going to be with us anymore."
"We want to try to make him pay because he killed them," Jonathan said.
The New York Post interviewed the victims' neighbors who described the Granobles family as "peaceful, loving people."
"Never any drama, a sweet, loving family," said neighbor, Amelia Dawson.
"The little girl was always out in the back playing on the trampoline with her family," she added.
A police officer said accidents on Rockaway Boulevard are "always a disaster!"
"Never a little scrape, always serious."
"They drive so fast," he added. "It’s been especially bad lately."
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