The worst American car accident of the decade happened in New York: the FBI protected the culprit because he framed Muslims

October 6, 2018. A limousine converted from a Ford Excursion crashes into a Toyota Highlander at high speed, killing two bystanders. The driver lost control. It was the deadliest U.S. vehicular accident, including plane crashes, in the past decade. But the culprits got away with it because they are shielded by the FBI, with whom they cooperate. Although this is far from the first case when the fate of people broke because of them. About the monstrous permissiveness told the publication “Medusa".

A month before the accident, an Albany-based limousine rental company owned by Shahid Hussain is visited by an inspector. He will inspect the car for faults. Having discovered a malfunction, the inspector sticks a sticker about the unsuitability of the car.

Nauman, Shahid's son, helps his father run the business. Including, communicates with guests, conducts other affairs. That evening, Nauman calls the company's driver, 53-year-old Scott Lizinicchia. The car is rented by Axel Steenburg, a 29-year-old semiconductor factory worker in Amsterdam. He organizes a party for his wife's birthday.

Lizinikchia, knowing about the malfunction of the car, decides to listen to the boss and go with Axel's guests. Axel, his brother, the birthday girl, her three sisters and other guests will be in the car. There were 17 guests and the driver in the car. They were going to go to the brewery in the village of Cooperstown and have the main party there. About 80 kilometers separated them from their destination.

Some guests noticed a malfunction from the very beginning

From the very beginning, some of the guests will notice how old the car is. Rusty details, a shabby interior and dim lighting made a depressing impression. One of the guests wrote to another who was unable to arrive at the last moment: “The limousine sounds like it's about to explode. This is really rubbish. We'll all go deaf from the engine."

Around 13:45 Excursion was about an hour away from the brewery. Because of the detour route, he was moving rather in the opposite direction. On the hilltop highway, Lizinikchia pulled over as if he had noticed a malfunction.

Despite the fact that the reverse lights were working, the car goes downhill forward. Municipal employee Holly Wood passing by with her daughter will notice this oddity and stop, but Lizinicchia will motion to leave.

A couple of minutes later, Wood, who was waiting for a traffic light to get onto another highway, heard a roar right behind her, reminiscent of an airplane engine. On the road with a steep incline, the overloaded limousine picked up maximum speed and took off at an intersection with another highway. Having slipped through it, in the parking lot of the store, he crashed into a parked Toyota at full speed. Even after that, for some time he moved at a speed of about 120 kilometers per hour and eventually fell into a ditch. From the outside, the passenger compartment looked almost intact, but inside it was a mess of human bodies.

None of the passengers were wearing seat belts. 16 of them died on the spot, 2 - a couple of hours later in the hospital.

Paramedics had to seek psychological help

A total of 20 people died: all the passengers, the driver and two bystanders. In terms of casualties, it was the deadliest U.S. vehicular accident, including plane crashes, in the past decade.

The ambulance paramedics who arrived at the scene of the accident subsequently had to undergo a course of psychological rehabilitation from what they saw.

Nauman would be arrested four months later for causing death by negligence. In the interior of his car, they found the same sticker about the malfunction that the inspector pasted on the crashed limousine. The accident caused a huge resonance and produced a shocking effect not only because of the number of victims and the scale of the tragedy. Many New Yorkers have long known about the disregard for the laws of the rental owner and his family. Some guessed that the special status of Shahid Hussain was due to contacts with the FBI. Powerful members of the service provided cover for an undercover agent every time he got into trouble.

Albany lawyer and political activist Steve Downes is emotional about Hussain: “It's like we've been cursed. Every time we think it's finally over, this guy pops up again."

Who is Shahid Hussain and why is he allowed to do everything

Shahid Hussain arrived in Albany from Pakistan in 1994 as a political refugee. His family also moves with him. However, according to some rumors, he fled Pakistan because of the murder.

Almost immediately after the move, he settled in an expensive suburb, sent his children to a good school, opened shops and a gas station. A few months after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, he was arrested on suspicion of forging documents. It turned out that when Hussain was deprived of his license for the improper condition of the car, he paid a bribe to an employee of the motor transport department to remove information about his violations from the database.

Terrorists used fake IDs, so he was threatened with a heavy punishment, up to and including deportation. However, Hussein managed to negotiate with the FBI - in exchange for forgiveness, he promised to cooperate with the authorities and reveal the real terrorists. So Hussein became a "mole".

Shahid first testified against people who helped him get fake documents, then undercover infiltrated an Afghan group of heroin dealers.

Helped jail innocent people

By a strange coincidence, Hussain, along with the work of the FBI, will get into trouble. In the summer of 2003, he declared bankruptcy, and in the fall of that year, his house burned down under mysterious circumstances. The agents who arrived at the scene took the man somewhere, who refused to answer questions from the fire department.

Hussein's most high-profile operation is infiltrating "terrorist" groups in Albany. He will begin to win the trust of the parishioners, he will look for potential terrorists.

He will have a plan to "expose" the imam who fled Syria. But despite the provocative talk, Hussein fails to “talk” the imam and get the eulogy about Osama bin Laden recorded on a secret recording device.

In court, the case almost fell apart due to weak evidence and the superficial work of investigators. It turned out that another suspect referred to the imam not as "commander" but as "brother". “People were lazy and indifferent to the investigation,” complained the lawyer representing the interests of the accused, Steve Downes. “This is the first time in my memory that the authorities prosecuted a person who was obviously innocent.”

Hussein came to the aid of the FBI - the mole told how during one of the conversations the defendant shrugged his shoulders when he heard about the impending attack on New York. By "happy" chance, that conversation was not recorded, but the jury was convinced by Hussein's testimony. The imam and the owner of the pizzeria where they met were sentenced to 15 years in prison.

For this "case" Hussein escaped with a small fine of $100 and even received $60.

Cooperation with the FBI made him untouchable. Bilateral authorities in New York State pointedly refused to discuss with reporters the role of the semi-legal FBI operative in the accident.

He sold the burnt house at exorbitant prices, the money came from a buyer with a legal address in Tennessee. It matched the address of Shahid's own firm. With the proceeds, he bought a hotel, which he converted into a rooming house for the poor - as part of a social program, their accommodation was allegedly paid from the state budget.

"Newburg Four"

In the late 2000s, Hussain attended a mosque in the impoverished city of Newburgh for over a year. There he will pretend to be a successful businessman. Promising huge fees to some men, he will persuade them to commit a terrorist attack. Friends of the prisoners said that one of them worked in a warehouse in a supermarket, another combined occasional part-time jobs with studies, the third did not have permanent housing and suffered from mental disorders.

Having told them that he is a radical anti-Semite, he will methodically inspire them with the idea of ​​a terrorist attack. Also, the “mole” of the FBI will promise the victims a BMW car. Hussain and his curator Robert Fuller have presented themselves in court as heroes who helped catch dangerous criminals. In reality, they simply framed four people without any radical religious or political views, persuading them to participate in a fictional terrorist plot.

Then the lawyers raised the question of the credibility of the main witness: they mentioned Hussein's opaque financial fraud, confusion with immigration documents and possible tax fraud. However, the jury still took the side of the FBI: each of the "Newburg Four", as the defendants were nicknamed by the press, was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

What were Hussein's motives

The specific reasons for such “cooperation” with the FBI are unknown. As it turned out, Hussain received $700 from Pakistan and his brother is a powerful man in the country.

The charges of forging documents were dropped from him after the first assignment. Hussain himself admitted that since then he has helped the FBI at least 20 times. The most obvious explanation for Shahid's bizarre career is that he enjoyed permissiveness and, thanks to his cooperation with the FBI, felt protected from any persecution.

Eyewitnesses recalled that, unlike other undercover agents, he enjoyed even the most dubious assignments. For example, when he had to provoke innocent people so that they would then be accused of terrorism. When the son of the owner of a pizzeria, who, thanks to Hussein's testimony, was sentenced to prison, accidentally stumbled upon an informant and accused him of ruining his life, he only laughed in response. Soon the young man received a call from the FBI and explained that he would no longer bother Shahid.

Punishment for an accident - not a day in jail

Despite the outcry, Nauman did not spend a single day in prison. Various services complicated the process in any way and did not allow the National Transportation Safety Board to the car.

The hype around the case was helped by Larry Rulison, a correspondent for the local Times Union newspaper. He found that the State Department of Transportation received repeated complaints about the condition of the limousine. He also found out that Hussein Sr. left the States during the investigation against his son.

According to Rulison, Hussain's eldest son owns the hotel. Gas, electricity, water are carried out there with numerous safety violations. Taxes in the amount of 30 thousand dollars were not paid. Outside a hotel, a five-year-old nearly died in an unfenced sewer pit. Inspectors recognized the Hussein rental cars as unusable in 80% of cases, but this did not prevent the owners from continuing to risk the lives of customers on a daily basis.

Indulgence towards Shahid's family manifested itself in different ways. Their drivers were less likely than other companies to be tested for alcohol and illegal substances. Haris escaped serious punishment even when he was caught driving after being deprived of his license. Before that, he was issued more than 70 fines. Technical inspection of limousines took place in a service that did not have permission to work with cars of this type. Hussein Sr.'s cooperation with the FBI effectively freed him and his relatives from any responsibility.

In the fall of 2020, the National Transportation Safety Board released a report on the accident case. The main culprits of the tragedy were recognized as the Hussein salon and the state transport department, which condoned the operation of faulty vehicles.

In fact, the Husseins may not have been aware of the failure of the vehicle's braking system. Details of the investigation were dissolved in endless interdepartmental correspondence. Nauman negotiated a plea deal with the prosecutor in exchange for a reduced sentence. He never spent a day in jail.