Anguished family members speak after NYC truck crash kills 3
NEW YORK - A memorial is growing for the victims of a July 4th crash on the Lower East Side that killed three people.
Two of the victims have been identified as Herman Pinkney, 38, and his mother Lucille, 59. The third victim has been identified as 43-year-old Ana Morel.
Six others were injured when a suspected drunk driver crashed into a gathering at Corlears Hook Park.
Anguished loved ones visited the scene Friday.
Family and loved ones visit site of deadly crash
Diamond Pinkney was in tears at the site where his mother and brother were killed.
"I hope we get justice for my brother and my mother," he said. "Herman, I love you. I'm going to do you proud."
"My cousin, he was happy. He was outgoing. He was funny. He was surrounded by a lot of his friends, all the time. My aunt, she loved her son. They were really close, and she works hard to take care of her children. It's just a shock," relative Haneefah Hafan said.
Neighbors say Herman's father, who is visiting from North Carolina, was also at the park when his son was killed.
"We're all devastated with this. It breaks my heart, and I'm so sad about it," neighbor Nereida Garcia said.
With tears flowing down his face, Delroy Lewis says Saturday mornings at the laundromat will never be the same without Lucille Pinkney, affectionately called Lucy.
"I don't want to go there tomorrow. I know I'm going to miss that lady," he said. "She's a beautiful person."
Jessica Pellot, Herman's girlfriend, was injured in the crash, along with her 11-year-old son, Jakob.
"She has an eye swollen. She fractured her arm. She may need a brace or cast, and she broke her backbone," Pellot's mother, Donna Rosario, said.
Rosario says Jakob has stitches on his forehead and a busted lip.
Neighbors say a 30-year-old woman was also run over, and her young son saw it happened.
"From the lungs collapsing, her pelvis was fractured, her wrist was fractured, her kidney is bleeding and her brain is swelling," said Girl Negron, a friend of the victim.
Morel's cousin says she was at the park enjoying the day with her neighbors when she was killed.
Driver faces host of charges
The crash took place just before 9 p.m. Thursday. Four of nine victims were trapped under the pickup truck.
Police said 44-year-old Daniel Hyden of Monmouth Junction, N.J. was allegedly speeding down Water Street and ran through a stop sign at the intersection of Water and Cherry Streets, then drove up onto the sidewalk and into the crowd in the park.
"From the video surveillance, he was driving at a high rate of speed, went through the stop sign, through the fence and into where those people were," NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell said.
He's charged with assault, vehicular manslaughter, DWI and driving without a license.
As Hyden was being taken from the precinct to court, family members called out to him.
"Remember their names. That's all I want you to do. Remember their names. Lucille and Herman Pinkney," one said.
"Send him home with me! Send him home with me! Let him live with me for the rest of his life, remember my sister and nephew Lucille and Herman Pinkney," said another.
"Remember my sister, my nephew, Lucille and Herman Pinkney. That's who needs to be remembered. She has a son at home with no mother and no brother. He's home by himself," one relative said.
