Murder suspect charged in earlier hit-run accident

The man accused of gunning down a teenager outside the Albert Einstein Medical Center last month also allegedly got in a hit-and-run car wreck in August in which he ditched his injured, 13-year-old passenger at the scene.

Darian Person, 19, already is being held in prison without bail for gunning down Aisha Abdur Rahman, 15, on Sept. 22 outside Albert Einstein Medical Center. Yesterday, police added two more criminal charges for an Aug. 25 car accident in which Person allegedly hit three cars at 15th and Cayuga, said Officer Christine O'Brien. In that incident, Person was driving a friend's 2011 Lexus west on Cayuga Street when he hit a van towing another car that was headed south on 15th, O'Brien said. The impact sent the Lexus spinning into an empty, parked car nearby, O'Brien said.

Preliminary investigation showed that the traffic light malfunctioned, giving both drivers a green light, O'Brien said. Person, who wasn't properly licensed, and two of his three passengers fled on foot, leaving the Lexus and third passenger, an injured 13-year-old girl, behind, O'Brien said. The girl was treated and released from St. Christopher's Hospital for Children for minor injuries. Person faces a preliminary hearing Oct. 30 for charges relating to leaving the scene of an accident and driving without a proper license.

In his murder case, Person, a high-school dropout with a lengthy criminal history, is accused of firing his gun into a large crowd during a street fight. One bullet critically wounded a 19-year-old man, while another tore into the back of Rahman, a sophomore at nearby Delaware Valley Charter High School. A preliminary hearing in the murder case is scheduled for Dec. 2.