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 am 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.
The despondent bride said that Walker and Weaver were set to tie the knot in a massive ceremony at the Royal Manor wedding venue in Garfield, New Jersey.
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 pm 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.”
She added that the couple had started a successful car rental business that had prospered thanks to Walker’s challenging work.
“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 5:30 am, 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 “neighborhood ‘nephew’ to all the homies in the hood” and noted that his cousin died alongside him.
As did the passenger, the pickup truck’s driver took off after the accident 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 unclear if they’ve been arrested or charged with any crime.
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