2002 325 dies at start up help

Hey guys I have a friend that is running into some trouble. The problem is when the car is running in Park and then when she shifts into Drive and lets go of the brakes to accelerate, the car just dies. And then she has to put in back in Park and restart the engine. It's happened like 3 times in the past couple of months. What do you guys think. Electircal maybe?

sounds like aproblem with the mass air meter. if its not working right it can cause a rough idle, sluggish and sputtering acceleration from idle and kill the engine due to robbing it of air