Queens Crash Involving Lakers' Lamar Odom Ends In Tragedy For NYC Family
NEW YORK (WFAN/AP) — Neighbors have buried a teenager who died after hurtling onto a New York City sidewalk when a motorcycle collided with a vehicle carrying Lakers star Lamar Odom.
"Everybody was paying attention to (Odom)," one witness told the New York Daily News. "Nobody cared about the kid."
Odom, who stars in a reality TV show with his wife, Khloe Kardashian, was visiting his native Queens on Thursday afternoon when a motorcycle tried to turn left in front of the chauffeured Cadillac Escalade sport-utility-vehicle he was riding in, police said.
The motorcycle hit the front bumper of the SUV and went out of control, striking a pedestrian, 15-year-old Awsaf Alvi Islam, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said Tuesday.
"It hit him from behind and he went right down headfirst," said Rahat Islam, a friend of the boy.
"My thoughts and prayers are with the young boy's family," Odom tweeted on Monday.
An ambulance took the boy to Elmhurst Hospital Center in Queens with severe head trauma, said Atiya Butler, a spokeswoman for the hospital. He died of his injuries at about 2:30 p.m. on Friday.
The collision occurred shortly after Odom had stopped at the China One Taco House at the corner of 45th Street and 48th Avenue in Woodside, said Shahrath Choudhury, 12. He and other children from the neighborhood flocked around Odom's vehicle and took pictures with their cell phones as Odom waved from the rear seat.
"It was messed up," another witness told the Daily News. "They got excited and were asking to take photos with (Odom)."
The driver of the motorcycle, 32-year-old Christian Mora of Queens, was in stable condition at the same hospital, Browne said. No one has been arrested, but the collision remains under investigation, he said.
The SUV was owned by a New York livery car service. The driver was unhurt.
Awsaf Alvi Islam was the son of immigrants from Bangladesh, an avid soccer player who had recently become more involved in his local mosque, Rahat Islam said.
"He was very quiet, a good boy," said Nomani Choudhury, president of the Jam-e-Masjid mosque.
Mourners gathered on the sidewalk in front of the mosque on Monday and bowed their heads in prayer around Islam's plain wooden casket. The consul-general of Bangladesh in New York, Shabbir Ahmad Chowdhury, also attended the service, Choudhury said.
Members of the mosque took up a collection to pay for the casket and burial at Washington Memorial Park on Long Island.
"His family is hand-to-mouth, so we took it on ourselves," Choudhury said.
Shahrath Choudhury said two motorcycles had been speeding up and down the avenue that afternoon, one of them doing wheelies.
A spokesman for the Lakers, John Black, said the team would not comment about players during the NBA lockout. A spokeswoman for Kardashian also declined comment.
Odom is a seven-year veteran of the Lakers and has also played for the Los Angeles Clippers and Miami Heat. His agent and publicist did not immediately answer emails seeking comment.
Kardashian is a socialite who has appeared in three reality TV series with her sisters, Kim and Kourtney. She and Odom were married in 2009 and have a spinoff reality TV show, Khloe & Lamar, on the E! cable network.
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