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, 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.
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.”
Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News
Scene of the wrong-way hit-and-run crash on the Henry Hudson Parkway Saturday.
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.
“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.
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.”
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.”
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