Tuesday, August 27, 2024 – A groom-to-be was killed in a horrifying wrong-way crash in Manhattan early Saturday, August 24, just one day before his wedding, leaving his heartbroken bride shattered.
Would-be groom, Kirk Walker, and his cousin, Rob McLaurin,
were killed by a wrong-way driver on the Henry Hudson Parkway in Harlem.
On Sunday, August 25, on what should have been their wedding
day, the devastated would-be bride Shauntea Weaver, 40, said: “I’m supposed to
be in my wedding dress right now — not in mourning.”
“I feel like this is a TV show and I’m going to wake up any
minute and go back to my real life,” she told The Post.
“Every hour since it happened, I’m having a different
emotion take me over.”
Walker, a 38-year-old father of three from Manhattan, was
celebrating his bachelor party ahead of his nuptials with McLaurin, 40, when
their Dodge Challenger was hit head-on at about 2:20 a.m. by a pickup truck
barreling down the wrong way of the parkway, according to police and a
Facebook post.
Both men died during the collision.
Walker and Weaver were set to tie the knot in a huge ceremony
at the Royal Manor wedding venue in Garfield, New Jersey, the despondent bride
said.
A catering hall representative confirmed that the ceremony had been cancelled due to “a fatal crash.”
“Our ceremony was supposed to be at 5:00 p.m. today — in a
few hours,” Weaver said. “He died 24 hours before our wedding. It’s
devastating, and not just for me. He has three children who loved him
immeasurably. They are heartbroken that their father’s been taken.”
“He was such a generous, hard-working man,” she continued.
“He had a heart of gold and would do anything for anybody. Such a hard worker.”
The couple had started a successful car rental business that
had prospered thanks to Walker’s incredibly hard work, she added.
“He put his blood, sweat and tears into it — we both did,”
Weaver said.
Now, it’s about getting justice for her deceased beau.
“The detectives looked me right in my face and said that
they were going to do everything they could to get justice,” she said. “They
told me the driver left his DNA on the airbags. So they have that. Also, the
passenger is in the hospital with broken legs and he needs to speak up.”
“Two lives were lost in a reckless car crash,” she
continued. “They need to pay for killing two innocent people.”
“Nothing will bring him back. But we are seeking justice.”
Walker’s neighbour, Tommy Lee, said Sunday that his friend was uniformly loved in the community.
“He was family-oriented, helpful,” Lee said. “Smart. Amazing
dude.”
Some people outside his apartment hadn’t heard the news yet
and they lamented when told of his passing.
Meanwhile, friends and family took to social media to lament
Walker’s passing.
“At 5:30am I received the most heartbreaking call that two
of my cousins were killed in a car accident,” Akilañ Ke-Ki Woods wrote on
Facebook.
“He was getting married today! How does our family go from
preparing a celebration to now planning two funerals?” she continued. “His
fiancé, I can’t imagine her pain right now. Both cousins had children, both
parents and siblings!”
“My family is hurting and broken right now,” she added. “I can’t go one hour without breaking down in tears.”
Another woman, Alexis Stewart, identified Walker on
Facebook as a “neighbourhood ‘nephew’ to all the homies in the hood” and
noted that his cousin died alongside him.
The pickup truck’s driver took off after the accident — as
did the passenger — and remains on the loose.
But cops caught up with the passenger about 30 feet from the
crash, cops said.
Authorities brought that person to the hospital.
It’s not clear if they’ve been arrested or charged with any
crime.
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