Neighbors of one of the men killed by an out-of-control drunk driver on the Upper West Side desperately tried to lift the killer’s Mercedes off of their crushed friend, the victim’s friend told the Daily News.
Louis Lopez, 30, described how he rushed to Amsterdam Ave. near W. 109th St. to try and save Jason Negron, 46, who was killed along with Michael Saint-Hilaire, 35, by the runaway SUV driver Friday evening.
“It was like 40 people. There was a lot of people at the scene just trying to move the vehicle off of him but that car was just not budging at all,” Lopez told The News Sunday. “We attempted to try and take off any safety brakes or mechanisms that the car might have, but it just wasn’t allowing the car to move at all.”
“My heart was completely shattered at that point,” he added. “I just felt hopeless and kind of useless. Especially when you know somebody.”
The driver, Elvin Suarez, 61, was three blocks from his home when slammed his Mercedes-Benz SUV into a parked Volkswagen Jetta SUV on Amsterdam Ave. near W. 109th St., at about 6 p.m., then kept going, vaulting onto a pedestrian island and the sidewalk, plowing into a crowd of people, cops said. He also struck and injured two other pedestrians, both men, ages 46 and 36, cops said.
Police sources said Suarez may have been going as fast as 80 mph when he crashed.
He then slammed into a parked 1999 Chevrolet Astro van, occupied by a 51-year-old man, causing a chain-reaction crash involving four other parked vehicles.
Suarez’s blood alcohol content measured 0.1 %, well over the 0.08 % legal threshold for drunken driving, cops said. He remains hospitalized, and is slated to be arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court on manslaughter and other charges.
Rebecca White / New York Daily News
Friends and neighbors visit a memorial for the crash victims on Amsterdam Ave. near West 109th St. on Sunday. (Rebecca White / New York Daily News)
Suarez knew both of the men he killed, Lopez said.
“These are all people that we literally grew up with…. They all knew each other,” he said. “That was just inconsiderate. He took two innocent people’s lives, people who didn’t deserve it.”
Regarding Negron and Saint-Hilaire, he said, “These were people who were pillars, people who were important to our community.”
The two victims were captured together in a photo talking to each other just hours before the crash, he said, pointing to a photo — apparently from a local security camera — at a makeshift memorial to the pair.
Mei King, 61, who lives in the building on W. 110th St. where Negron worked for years as a doorman, said she wanted to pay her respects at the memorial Sunday.
“He was a young man when he first worked in the building,” she said. “He saw my little kids grow up for 20 years. My daughter sobbed when she heard who it was…. Jason always did the morning shift, the 8 to 4.”
She last saw him Friday, she said.
“It’s heartbreaking. We love him,” she said. “He was always happy with us. He always has a joke.”
Negron had two daughters, one in high school, the other who just finished her first year in college, King said.
“He took his kids to a water park every Christmas,” she said. “He saved his vacation time for the whole year to take his family on vacation for Christmas.”
Saint-Hilaire was the father of young triplets and was looking forward to celebrating their second birthday. He worked for Mount Sinai Health System and aspired to be a cop.
King called the crash “senseless,” adding that anyone from the neighborhood could have been wiped out.
“Park the car and walk,” she said of driver. “You’re that close (to your home).”