State Police: Passenger attacks driver on Southern State Parkway

A passenger in a Lexus attacked the driver Monday night on the Southern State Parkway, punching and choking the motorist, then stealing the car, State Police said.

Narain Bicessar, 43, of Hempstead, was charged with second-degree robbery, criminal obstruction of breathing/blood circulation, second-degree reckless endangerment and second-degree harassment, police said Tuesday in a news release.

Bicessar was being held for arraignment at Nassau County First District Court, police said.

At about 9:04 p.m. Monday, troopers responded to the westbound Southern State in the area of Exit 15 in North Valley Stream on a report of a pedestrian walking in the center median, police said.

Troopers and Nassau County police found the pedestrian, who told them he had been in an altercation with a passenger in a 2010 Lexus ES250 while driving, police said.

The altercation started as a verbal one but then became physical, with Bicessar "punching the driver in the face and then [putting] the Lexus into park while it was still in motion," police said in a news release. "The driver was able to pull the Lexus onto the center median and stop the vehicle. Once stopped, Bicessar started to strangle the driver, but the driver was able to escape. Bicessar took the vehicle, leaving the driver in the center median, and fled the scene."

Police did not disclose the nature of the relationship between the driver and passenger.

The suspect was found a short time later in Richmond Hill and arrested by troopers, police said.