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Deer Park resident Daniel Coppolo, 33, pleaded guilty this week to manslaughter, leaving the scene of an accident and tampering with physical evidence after the crash that killed 18-year-old Taranjit Parmar of Levittown in November 2017. He also pleaded guilty to robbery in a separate incident when he used force to escape a security guard after shoplifting.
Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas said that at approximately 5 p.m. on Nov. 9, 2017, Parmar was driving her Jeep Cherokee on the Hempstead Turnpike. Coppolo, in his pickup truck, pulled out of a parking lot near the Ultra gas station and the two were involved in a fender bender.
Following the collision, both Parmar and Coppolo pulled into a parking lot west of the gas station to evaluate the damage.
Singas said that Parmar got out of her Jeep and called her mother. While on the phone, Parmar yelled for Coppolo to stop and grabbed his truck as he started to move. Coppolo drove through the parking lot, dragging Parmar along and ultimately ran her over before fleeing the scene by driving the wrong way on Hempstead Turnpike.
Witnesses called 911, Parmar was transported to a local hospital in Nassau County in cardiac arrest and she was pronounced dead that night. Parmar was an Adelphi University student scheduled to start a four-year program at the NYU College of Dentistry.
The investigation led detectives to Coppolo’s truck in the parking lot of Target in Westbury, where he had been arrested for stealing items several days after the hit-and-run. Singas said that, upon inspection of the truck, rubbing compound was found applied to the area that had been damaged in the initial collision. Coppolo was arrested on Dec. 23, 2017.
“It is incomprehensible that this adult defendant could recklessly take the promising young life of 18-year-old, Taranjit Parmar over a trivial fender bender,” Singas said. “Our continuing condolences go out to the Parmar family for their unbearable loss.”
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