Mayor Eric Adams put up a $1,000 reward this week for information on a hit-and-run driver who fled the scene after killing two men in a collision in Upper Manhattan — including a groom-to-be who was set to be wed the following day.
Hizzoner made the promise at his weekly press briefing on Tuesday, calling the crash that killed Kirk Walker and Robert McLaurin on Aug. 24 a “Shakespearean tragedy.”
“We’re going to find a person involved,” said the mayor. “And I’m asking New Yorkers, if you know of any information that can lead to apprehending this person who appeared to have left the scene, I’m just going to put $1,000 of my own personal money to call for the arrest and conviction of this person.”
Walker, a 38-year-old from Washington Heights, was driving a Dodge Challenger at about 2:20 a.m. Saturday morning with his cousin, McLaurin, in town from North Carolina, en route from his bachelor party, when a wrong-way driver in a Chevrolet pickup truck smashed into the vehicle on the Henry Hudson Parkway.
Both Walker and McLaurin were transported to local hospitals, where they were pronounced dead.
The wrong-way pickup also collided with an Audi, sending the driver and passenger to the hospital, where they were reported in stable condition.
The passenger in the Chevy pickup, which caught on fire, remained on scene and was taken to the hospital in stable condition, but the driver fled and has not been caught.
Walker was set to be married just one day after the crash, the New York Post and Daily News reported.
The mayor said he had spoken to Walker’s mother and sister, describing their mental state as “devastated,” and said he planned to support their wishes to erect a memorial to Walker and McLaurin at the site of the crash.
“We’re going to do everything we can to coordinate,” said Hizzoner. “Number one, to bring closure to apprehend the person. And number two, to allow them to go and have some form of closure at the site where the incident took place.”
Traffic collisions have killed 169 people in the five boroughs so far in 2024, 3.7% more than recorded at the same period last year. In the Manhattan North patrol borough, where Saturday’s crash took place, fatal crashes are up more than 25% compared to last year, according to NYPD statistics.
