A groom-to-be and his cousin were killed in a horrific accident on Manhattan’s Henry Hudson Parkway the day before their planned wedding.
Kirk Walker, 38, was set to tie the knot with his fiancée on Sunday at the Royal Manor in Garfield, New Jersey, but a pickup truck driver threw a spanner in the works.
Walker was thrilled about his wedding, said the mother of Walker’s cousin Robert McLaurin, who died with him in the crash.
“He was over the moon. He was over the moon. I said, ‘Are you ready, son?’ … because I call him my son. And he said, ‘Yes, ma’am.’ And he said, ‘I’m over the moon.’ He said, ‘I’m happy,’” she told the Daily News Sunday. “I don’t understand it. I don’t know. I’m dreaming like I wake up and hope it’s over.”
Walker and his cousin, McLaurin, 40, of North Carolina, were headed downtown on the parkway when a pickup truck driver traveling the wrong way crashed head-on into their Dodge Challenger near W. 154th St. around 2:30 a.m. Saturday, police said.
The wrong-way driver got out of the wrecked pickup and ran away, leaving a 22-year-old passenger behind as one of the vehicles burst into flames. Two other vehicles were damaged in the ensuing pileup, police said.
“Our hearts here at the venue absolutely go out to both of them … It’s a tragedy what happened and our thoughts and prayers are with them right now,” a representative for 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 have nothing but good things to say about them.”
Police questioned the passenger on Saturday, but had not yet arrested the driver by Sunday.
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 in a long time that I’ve seen my son relaxed and happy,” she added. “(McLaurin) was overjoyed to show her to his cousin. He had talked about it. He was ready to show her to him and so they celebrated that night.”
“They were like brothers,” she said of her son and his cousin. “They grew up together and they talked every day. They were really close.”
On Sunday, Facebook friend Alexis Stewart mourned the groom-to-be as “a neighborhood cousin to all the friends in the neighborhood.”
“They were all at his bachelor party the night before,” she wrote. “And were supposed to be married today. His cousin from North Carolina who came to the wedding also passed away. Condolences to everyone.”
According to McLaurin’s mother, her entire family had come from North Carolina to attend the wedding, but she heard about the accident from her daughter.
She described her son as a “good man.”
“He said he was put on earth to serve,” she said, “and he did it well.”
