A pastor whose cousin, whose father was killed Monday when a speeding Mercedes caused a chain reaction crash, said he ran to his father’s side as he lay dying and told him he loved him.
“He was on his back. I told him, ‘I love you, Kaz.’ He was just trying to catch his breath,” Pat Wilson, 62, a relative of victim Najari Reed, told The Washington Post.
Wilson said her granddaughter came into the house screaming that a car had crashed near the intersection of First Avenue and East 105th Street, so she ran outside.
“I turned around and it was him,” Wilson said. “I told my granddaughter, ‘Oh my God, Kaz is on the ground!’ I was just praying for him. ‘It’s going to be OK, Kaz, it’s going to be OK.’ I knew he was going to be OK.”
But she ultimately realized her beloved 51-year-old cousin, who loved cooking, basketball, friends and community, wouldn’t survive.
“It’s been really hard. It’s been really hard,” she said through tears. “We’re going to miss him so much.”
The fiery crash that led to the cousin’s death, which was caught on camera, happened around 3:40 p.m. when a 2007 white Mercedes driven by 51-year-old Angel Melendez sped down First Avenue, slammed into a Chevrolet Tahoe and crushed Reed, who was trying to cross the road.
According to police and video of the crash, Melendez, who had a 14-year-old boy in the passenger seat, was driving recklessly, nearly killing another woman who was crossing the road, then crashed into an unoccupied parked Suzuki motorcycle.
Reed, who lived on East 105th Street, suffered serious injuries to his leg, police said. Authorities rushed him to Weill Cornell Medical Center, but he could not be saved.
Melendez was indicted Tuesday on charges of second-degree manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and endangering the welfare of a child, according to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.
The judge granted prosecutors’ request to hold the defendant on $500,000 cash bail or surety, prosecutors added.
His next court date is Aug. 1.
He remained at the scene and was taken to Metropolitan Hospital in stable condition. The juvenile passenger in the car was not injured.
Wilson described her cousin, who lives with her sister and is the father of a teenage son, as a kind man with many friends who love him.
His father is in a difficult condition, she said, and his friends and neighbors are mourning his loss.
“He was a wonderful person — a caring, giving person,” said friend Damien Amaker, 43, adding that his childhood friend loved chess and dominoes.
“When I would come here, my dad would give me a dollar or a coin so I could play video games,” he said, tears in his eyes. “He cared about everybody. If I ever needed anything, I could always ask my dad.”
“He had a brother who died two weeks ago, and yet he was still helping people,” Amaker continued.
“This was a huge loss for our neighborhood. People will feel the impact for a long time. Things will never be the same once he’s gone.”
An impromptu memorial filled with bourbon bottles, empty champagne bottles and 39 candles (one of which read, “I love you, Cuss”) was erected on a basketball court near his home.
“These blocks are very solid,” Wilson said. “We’re working our way around them.”
Reed loved to cook and was the chef at every party, she said.
“When I say ‘cooking,’ I mean he cooks everything,” she said. “Cooking was his forte. He would always go to the store and get ingredients for his cooking. He would also buy food for me.”
His specialties? Turkey wings, mac and cheese, and macaroni salad.
“He made a macaroni salad that was out of this world delicious,” Amaker added. “Everyone who had a get-together or a barbecue asked him to make it. He called it the ‘Quick Kitchen.'”
She said she will miss seeing his face when she walks out the door, and their daily interactions that began with, “What’s up, Kaz?”
Wilson added that she now feels uneasy crossing the road, especially with her young granddaughter in tow.
“[What if there] “Was there a baby on that corner?” she asked. “I can’t imagine what it could have been.”
Now all she can do is pray for her beloved cousin.
“We all have to pass,” she said, “which is why I tell people to love each other, because just like my cousin, he may be here today and gone tomorrow.”
“I never imagined he’d leave that day, but he can’t come back,” she continued. “There comes a time for all of us to leave… but you can’t bring him back.”
