A groom was killed in a horrific wrong-way crash in Manhattan on the morning of Saturday, August 24, just one day before his wedding, leaving his heartbroken bride in tatters.
The 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 was supposed to be their wedding day, devastated bride Shantia Weaver, 40, said: “I should be in my wedding dress right now – not in mourning.”
“I feel like it's a TV show and I'm going to wake up at any moment and go back to my real life,” she told The Post.
“Every hour since it happened, I've been having a different emotion.”
Walker, a 38-year-old father of three from Manhattan, was celebrating his bachelor party before his wedding to McLaurin, 40, when his Dodge Challenger collided with a pickup truck at about 2:20 a.m. Parkway the wrong way, according to police and a Facebook post.
Both persons died during the encounter.
Walker and Weaver were set to tie the knot in a huge ceremony at the Royal Manor wedding venue in Garfield, New Jersey, the distraught bride said.
A Kettering Hall representative confirmed the event was canceled due to “a fatal accident”.
“Our event was supposed to be at 5:00 this evening – 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 dearly. They are heartbroken that their father has been taken away.
“He was such a generous, hard-working man,” she continued. “He had a heart of gold and would do anything for anyone. Such a hardworking man.”
He added that the couple had started a successful car rental business that was successful thanks to Walker's incredible hard work.
“He put his blood, sweat and tears into it — we both did,” Weaver said.
Now, it's about getting justice for his slain wife.
“The detectives looked me in the face and said they would do everything they could to get justice,” he said. “They told me the driver left his DNA on the airbag. So they have. Also, the passenger is in the hospital with broken legs and needs to speak.
“Two lives were lost in a careless car accident,” she continued. “They have to pay for killing two innocent people.”
“Nothing will bring him back. But we want justice.”
Walker's neighbor Tommy Lee said Sunday that his friend is equally loved in the community.
“He was family-oriented, supportive,” Lee said. “Brilliant. Amazing dude.”
Some people outside his apartment had not yet heard the news and expressed grief when the news of his death was announced.
Meanwhile, friends and family took to social media to mourn Walker's death.
“At 5:30am I received a heartbreaking call that two of my cousins had been killed in a car accident,” Aquila Kay-Kay Woods wrote on Facebook.
“He was getting married today! How does our family go from preparing for a celebration to now planning two funerals? He continued. “His fiancee, I can't imagine her pain right now. Both were cousins, both parents and siblings!
“My family is hurting and broken right now,” she added. “I can't go an hour without crying.”
Another woman, Alexis Stewart, identified Walker on Facebook as “a neighborhood 'nephew' to all the families” and noted that her cousin died with her.
The driver of the pickup truck took off after the crash — as did the passenger — and remained loose.
But the police caught the passenger about 30 feet away from the accident.
Authorities brought the man to the hospital.
It is not clear if they have been arrested or charged with any crime.