Brooklyn Man Facing Hit-And-Run Murder Charge Now Accused Of Stabbing Friend To Silence Him

A Brooklyn man facing a murder charge for a drunken 2017 hit-and-run in Bushwick is back behind bars after allegedly stabbing a pal in the throat, NYPD officials told Oxygen.com.

Police arrested Naquan Ricks, 23, in early May after he stabbed his friend, Sharief Davis, in the hallway of a Brooklyn apartment building, according to a criminal complaint obtained by Oxygen.com.

The stabbing appeared to be an attempt to prevent Davis from testifying against Ricks in the drunk-driving case, the New York Daily News reported. Davis, 21, was riding in the car with Ricks on last September when Ricks allegedly mowed down Lindsay Powell, 36, and injured nine others, a law enforcement source told the Daily News.

Ricks, who admitted to officers on the scene that he had been drinking, swerved his black 2007 Infiniti onto the sidewalk, sending pedestrians flying for cover, according to a criminal complaint.

Ricks, whose car had lost a wheel in the initial crash, tried to escape, but only drove about eight blocks before he blew a red light and T-boned a taxi, police said. Officers arrested Ricks several blocks away from the scene of the second collision, according to a criminal complaint.

Powell, 36, was one of several people hospitalized following the crash, and she died several days later after collapsing at home.

Ricks was initially freed in September on $10,000 bail after being charged with vehicular assault and various other charges, according to a spokesman for the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office. In March, a grand jury indicted him on second-degree murder and 40 other criminal charges, and his bail was increased to $50,000, but he was allowed to remain on the street and paid the higher bail several weeks later, records show.

Just before 10 p.m. on May 4, Ricks confronted Davis inside a three-floor Brooklyn walkup, slicing his friend so badly that Davis required multiple surgeries in the wake of the brutal attack, according to a criminal complaint.

Police arrested Ricks on May 9, and prosecutors slapped him with attempted murder charges for the stabbing, records show. A judge raised Ricks’s bail to $500,000 bond or $200,000 cash bail, but later ordered Ricks to be held without bail at Rikers Island while he awaits trial in the stabbing and the drunk-driving cases.

Speaking with the Daily News at Rikers Island, Ricks said he was so drunk in the September crash that he didn’t even remember if anyone was in the car with him.

"How would I even know he was a witness?" Ricks asked, referring to Davis. "All I remember is that they pulled me out of the car and threw me on the ground. And I remember going to the hospital. That's it."

Ricks said a newfound appreciation for God could have prevented the string of death and mayhem he allegedly left in his wake.

"I started reading the Bible recently," he told the Daily News. "I'm not religious but maybe if I had God earlier, all this wouldn't have happened."

A public defense attorney for Ricks could not be reached for comment.

[Photo: Getty]