DWI killer has violent past

A man suspected in the beating death of a financial worker in Manhattan in 2006 now faces charges of vehicular manslaughter and drunken driving after a crash that killed the driver of a livery cab and her passenger early Sunday in Queens, the police said.

The deaths come two years after Mr. Omar became a suspect in the robbery and killing of the financial worker. He has not been indicted in that case, but the investigation is continuing, the Manhattan district attorney’s office said on Sunday. A spokeswoman for the office said a court hearing in the case was scheduled for Dec. 12.

Two Women Die in Queens Livery Crash

Mr. Omar, whose name also appears in public records as Omar Daryush, was arrested in 2006 along with five other men after Thomas Whitney Jr., 24, of Hoboken, N.J., was found beaten on 19th Street near Avenue of the Americas in Chelsea. Investigators said Mr. Whitney had been with friends at a bar.

Initially, the investigation was stalled because the police were not immediately notified after the attack. Mr. Whitney, who was found on the ground without any identification, died 12 hours later.

A breakthrough in the case came after the police publicized surveillance images that showed three men on a shopping spree using Mr. Whitney’s credit cards. Mr. Omar and the others were arrested; he and two others were named as suspects in the killing and robbery, and the rest were considered suspects in criminal possession of stolen property.

Later newspaper accounts said the case could not proceed unless eyewitnesses came forward.

Sometime after the crash, a local resident, Evangelos Fotiou, 42, came across the scene of the accident and took money from one of the victims, the police said. It was unclear how much he took and where on the street he found it, the police said. Mr. Fotiou, who told officers he was going to return the money, was charged with obstructing governmental administration and petty larceny, the police said.