Groom-To-Be Dies In Car Crash A Day Before His Wedding

The 38-year-old fiancé and his cousin were riding in the car together when they were struck by an oncoming pickup truck going the wrong way.

Shauntea Weaver is grieving the loss of her fiancé Kirk Walker, 38, after he was killed on Aug. 24 in a wrong-way car crash in Harlem the day before their wedding.

“I’m supposed to be in my wedding dress right now — not in mourning,” Weaver told The New York Post on Sunday, Aug. 25. “Our ceremony was supposed to be at 5 p.m. today — in a few hours.” The father of three was celebrating his bachelor party when a pickup truck heading in the wrong direction struck Walker’s Dodge Challenger on the Henry Hudson Parkway at around 2:20 a.m. Rob McLaurin, Walker’s 40-year-old cousin who was in the car with him, also died in the head-on collision that morning near West 154th Street.

“He died 24 hours before our wedding,” said Weaver, who was looking forward to becoming a bride at the Royal Manor in Garfield, New Jersey. “It’s devastating, and not just for me,” she added. “Every hour since it happened, I’m having a different emotion take me over.” The 40-year-old bride-to-be said her fiancé’s three children loved him “immeasurably” and are heartbroken by his death. She described Walker as generous and hard-working. “He had a heart of gold,” she said about her lover and business partner who she thanked for the success of a car rental business they ran together.

According to ABC7, both individuals in the pickup truck fled the scene. The passenger was caught, but police are still searching for the driver. Weaver told The Post that the passenger was taken to the hospital and had broken legs. Detectives reported that DNA was left on the driver’s airbags and assured they would do everything to get justice.

On August 25, loved ones gathered in Bergenfield to comfort Weaver and the family. Messages poured in on social media extending prayers and condolences under a post by Akilañ Ke-Ki Woods, who referred to the two victims as her cousins.