Groom, cousin die in wrong-way Manhattan parkway hit-run crash day before wedding
By Rebecca White, John Annese, New York Daily News,
2024-08-25
A 48yr old man driving a black Dodge Challenger northbound on the Henry Hudson Parkway was pronounced dead at Harlem Hospital after a man driving a pickup truck southbound in the northbound lanes slammed into the Dodge head on near West 165th Street in Manhattan on Saturday Aug. 24, 2024. 0803. A 38yr old man riding as a passenger in the Dodge was rushed to Columbia Hospital where he was pronounced deceased. The pickup truck then crashed into an Audi, whose driver was treated on scene for minor injuries, and a Toyota SUV, whose driver refused medical attention. The pickup truck then burst into flames. The driver of the pickup truck fled the scene on foot whilst his 22yr old male passenger was transported to Harlem Hospital. Theodore Parisienne/New York Daily News/TNS
A groom-to-be and his cousin were killed a day before the planned wedding in a horrific wrong-way hit-and-run crash on Manhattan’s Henry Hudson Parkway.
Kirk Walker Jr., 38, was scheduled to tie the knot with his fiancée at the Royal Manor in Garfield, N.J., Sunday but an out-of-control pickup truck driver smashed those nuptial dreams.
“I can’t fathom the thought that I have to go home by myself on my wedding day because a reckless driver killed my husband and his cousin,” his fiancee, Shauntea Weaver, told ABC7 NY on Sunday. “I’m supposed to be with my husband. I’m not supposed to be here alone.”
Family members from both sides of the aisle gathered at the New Jersey home of Walker’s relatives but instead of celebrating the new union they held a vigil, lighting candles and releasing white balloons into the air.
“I was supposed to be at my wedding right now . This was supposed to be a wedding at the Royal Manor not a celebration of death,” Weaver told CBS News New York, calling the groom, “the best, best person ever.”
Walker was giddy about getting married, recounted the mom of Walker’s cousin Robert McLaurin, who died with him in the crash.
“He was ecstatic. He was tickled pink. I asked, ‘Are you ready, son?’ … because I call him my son. And he said, ‘Yes, Ma’am.’ And he said, ‘I’m tickled.’ He said, I’m happy,'” she told the Daily News Sunday. “I don’t have any understanding of it. I don’t know. I’m like in a dream and hoping I wake up and it’s all over.”
Walker and his cousin, McLaurin, 40, of North Carolina, were heading uptown on the parkway when a pickup driver going the wrong way slammed head-on into their Dodge Challenger near W. 154th St. about 2:30 a.m. Saturday, cops said.
The wrong-way driver got out of the wrecked pickup and ran off, leaving a 22-year-old passenger behind as one of the vehicles erupted into flames. Two other vehicles were damaged in the ensuing pileup, police said.
“I have a very strong faith in God. And I just hope that you suffer the way that I’ suffering, my family is suffering,” Weaver, a registered nurse, said of the driver, speaking to ABC7 NY.
Even workers at the wedding venue were shaken by the tragedy.
“Our hearts here at the venue definitely go out to the both of them. … It’s a tragedy what happened, and right now our thoughts and prayers are with them,” a representative of the wedding venue told the Daily News Sunday. “We were notified [yesterday]. It’s an extreme tragedy.”
“It’s extremely personal,” she added. “We worked with them on the planning process and we only have great things to say about them.”
Cops were questioning the passenger Saturday but as of Sunday had not nabbed the driver.
“My heart aches so much, and I’m really angry. I’m angry,” Walker’s father, Kirk Walker Sr., told CBS News New York. “I want them to see my face. I just want them to know that it ain’t over. It’s not over.”
McLaurin had a new girlfriend and was looking forward to introducing her to his cousin, his mother told The News.
“That’s the first time I’ve seen my son relaxed and happy in a long time,” she added. “[McLaurin] was ecstatic to show her off to his cousin. He had talked about it. He was ready to show her off to him, and that’s why they were out celebrating that night.”
“They was like brothers,” she said of her son and his cousin. “They grew up together and they talked every day. They was really close.”
Walker’s mother, was wearing her “Mother of the Groom” T-shirt at Sunday’s vigil.
“This is what we’re supposed to be wearing today,” she told CBS News New York. “They took my baby. And he wanted this wedding so, so much. And my nephew. He took my nephew too.”
On Sunday, Facebook friend Alexis Stewart mourned the groom-to-be as “a neighborhood ‘nephew’ to all the homies in the hood.”
“They were all at his bachelor’s party the prior night,” she wrote. “And was supposed to get married today. His cousin from NC that came up for the wedding also died. Strength to all.”
McLaurin’s mother said her family had all come in from North Carolina to attend the wedding only to find out about the crash from her daughter.
She described her son as a “good man.”
“He said he was put on this earth to serve,” she said, “and he did it well.”
My condolences to the families and friends to this terrible tragedy. You have a couple that believes in marriage and had hopes and dreams. The thought of what the bride is going through leaves me speechless.
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