Alejandra Paharsingh told police she has no memory of the crash that killed her best friend.
The 27-year-old Connecticut woman had a blood-alcohol level of.229 when she lost control of her 2024 Tesla in Midtown Manhattan around 2:45 a.m. Wednesday, prosecutors said. That figure is nearly three times New York’s legal driving limit of.08. Paharsingh now faces vehicular manslaughter charges after the wreck claimed the life of passenger Elise Suomi, a 28-year-old Harlem mother of a 3-year-old girl.
NYPD officer Thomas Dillon outlined Paharsingh’s statements in a criminal complaint filed in the case. The officer said he was present during the interview at the Midtown South precinct.
“I was present at the Midtown South interview room during an interview of the defendant, who admitted, in substance, to consuming multiple alcoholic beverages on the evening of September 8,” Dillon wrote. “The defendant further stated, in substance, that she did not remember driving the car on 42nd Street.”
Police said Paharsingh drove onto the sidewalk along East 42nd Street, struck a mailbox, and slammed into scaffolding with Suomi still in the vehicle. She allegedly continued driving several more blocks before finally stopping at the intersection of 42nd Street and Second Avenue. Officers who responded to the scene rushed Suomi to Bellevue Hospital, where she was pronounced dead shortly after 3 a.m.
Paharsingh sustained only minor injuries in the crash and received treatment before being taken into custody. She was arraigned Wednesday night in Manhattan Criminal Court, where the District Attorney’s Office requested bail set at $250,000 cash or a $750,000 bond. Judge Jeffrey Gershuny instead set the amount at $50,000.
By Thursday afternoon, Paharsingh was being held on Rikers Island awaiting her next court appearance.
Social media posts reviewed by investigators show the close bond between the two women. Paharsingh had described Suomi as “My bitch” in posts celebrating their friendship.
In Harlem, neighbors and loved ones gathered outside Suomi’s apartment building to build a makeshift memorial. They arranged blue and white candles alongside photographs of Suomi, including one showing her with her young daughter.
Neighbor George Cartagema spoke about the woman he knew from the building.
“She was a nice person,” he said. “She was very friend. She would help other people. Anything you need, if you’re hungry, she would always give you a plate of food. If you need clothes, she would give you what she can.”
Cartagema told reporters he had occasionally seen Suomi and Paharsingh together in the neighborhood.
The deadly sequence began with a night of drinking that ended with Paharsingh behind the wheel of the Tesla. What started as an evening out with her closest friend concluded with a mangled vehicle, a destroyed mailbox, damaged scaffolding, and a young mother dead at the hospital less than an hour after impact. The driver who walked away from the wreck with minor injuries now claims complete blackout of the events that led to her passenger’s death.
Paharsingh is scheduled to return to court Monday.