Teen suspect in custody in New York wrong-way crash that killed groom-to-be
By Jesse Zanger
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NEW YORK (WCBS) — Police have a suspect in custody in the deadly August wrong-way crash on the Henry Hudson Parkway that killed a groom the day before his wedding.
Kirk Walker, 38, and his cousin Robert McLaurin, 40, were killed in the early morning crash. Walker and his fiancée were supposed to get married the next day.
Police have arrested a 17-year-old, who faces manslaughter, leaving the scene of an accident, and criminally negligent homicide charges.
The crash took place just around 2:25 a.m. on Aug. 24.
Walker and McLaurin were pronounced dead at the scene.
New details of the crash According to the complaint, the teen was behind the wheel of a pickup truck that night that was initially traveling northbound on the Henry Hudson when he sideswiped another vehicle and didn’t stop. The vehicle that was hit pursued the truck, which got off on Dyckman Street, did a U-turn, and then headed southbound in the northbound lanes before crashing head-on with another car that Walker and McLaurin were in. The suspect then allegedly got out of the pickup truck, jumped over the center median, crossed the southbound lanes and ran off into the woods.
Police used surveillance video to track down the origin of the truck, and were able to spot the suspect on video initially getting behind the wheel of it at West 41st Street.
The suspect was picked up the next day near the U.S.-Canada border without proper ID, and had cuts and bruises on his face and stomach, and blood on his shirt, and was walking with a limp. Authorities matched him to the man they spotted in the video.
Walker’s fiancée and other family members held a vigil the day after, on what should have been their wedding day.
Mayor Eric Adams put up $1,000 of his own money as a reward in the case, which he called a “horrific, horrific incident.”
“Any accident is a terrible accident, but some of them can turn into Shakespearean tragedies. The day before your ceremony, the family’s devastated, as you can imagine,” Adams said.
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