Ahmen Holloman, the driver of the 1994 Honda.
Authorities have identified a former driver for a Huntingdon Valley-based ambulance service as the man allegedly behind the wheel of a 2012 Audi that struck and killed a Feltonville woman, along with three of her sons, on Roosevelt Boulevard on July 16.
Khusen Akhmedov, 23, was drag racing against Ahmen Holloman, 30, southbound on the Boulevard shortly before 10:30 p.m. when Akhmedov’s vehicle plowed into Samara Selena Banks, 28, and her four boys, who were attempting to cross the highway on foot, according to Philadelphia police.
Banks, of the 4600 block of C St., along with her 23-month-old son were both pronounced dead at the scene. Police did not release the boy’s name. The woman’s 7-month-old son, Saamir Williams, was taken to Albert Einstein Medical Center, where he died that night. Her 4-year-old son, whose name was not released, was taken to St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children, where he died on July 17. A 5-year-old son was also injured in the crash. He was treated at Einstein for “bumps and bruises,” police said, then released into the custody of relatives.
Authorities identified Akhmedov as a resident of Lancaster, Pa., but court documents in an unrelated federal health care fraud case indicate that he may have been living in the Northeast. Meanwhile, Holloman resides on 7000 block of Souder St. in Castor Gardens.
Both men were charged on July 17 with multiple counts of third-degree murder, homicide by vehicle and related offenses.
In a printed statement, Philadelphia police gave the following account of the crash. At 10:26 p.m., witnesses saw the Audi traveling southbound on the Boulevard near Front Street at a high rate of speed and apparently racing with a 1994 Honda. Moments later, the Audi veered out of control and struck Banks, along with her sons.
Akhmedov waited at the crash scene for police to arrive. Investigators questioned him and took blood samples, but did not charge him initially. Police did not release details about how they linked Holloman to the incident.
According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, which cited traffic court records in several Pennsylvania counties, Akhmedov has eight serious moving violations including speeding and reckless driving on his record, and had his license suspended in 2011.
The federal health-care fraud case against him came to light in April when the U.S. Attorney’s Office released a grand jury indictment naming Akhmedov among seven individual defendants in a Medicare rip-off scheme. The seven defendants were the owners and operators of Penn Choice Ambulance, which operated out of Huntingdon Valley and Camp Hill, Pa. The 31-count indictment alleges that the defendants falsely billed Medicare for more that $3.6 million in transportation services provided to patients who were ineligible for coverage. Medicare paid out more than $1.5 million to the ambulance company.
At the time of the indictment, the U.S. Attorney identified Akhmedov as a Philadelphia resident, but gave no address. His alleged role in the scheme included transporting ineligible patients, delivering kickbacks to patients who were in on the scheme and falsifying ambulance trip logs.
Akhmedov has pleaded not guilty in that case and had been freed on $100,000 bail. He reportedly told the court he would be living at a Northeast Philadelphia address.
Akhmedov and Holloman each are jailed at the city’s Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility in lieu of $2.5 million bail, pending a preliminary hearing on Aug. 7. ••
Khusen Akhmedov of Lancaster was driving the 2012 Audi that struck and killed Samara Selena Banks and three of her four young sons on Roosevelt Boulevard on July 16.
