A teenage wrong-way driver accused of killing a groom the day before his wedding in a horrific hit-and-run in Harlem was arrested by police on Friday.
Jimmy Connors, 17, is alleged to have been driving at a high rate of speed on the wrong side of the Henry Hudson Parkway in Upper Manhattan around 2:20 a.m. on Saturday, August 24, when he crashed his white pickup truck into a vehicle carrying Kirk Walker and his cousin, Rob McLoughlin, killing both men.
Connors, of Long Island, was charged with vehicular manslaughter, criminal negligence resulting in death and leaving the scene of an accident, police said.
Walker, a 38-year-old father of three who lives in Manhattan, was planning to marry his fiancée, Shawnte Weaver, 40, in a lavish ceremony in New Jersey.
“I should be in my wedding dress right now, not in mourning,” Weaver told The Washington Post in a heartbreaking exclusive interview on what would have been her wedding day. “I feel like this is a TV show, and soon I'm going to wake up and go back to real life.”
Weaver said the murder suspect must pay for his crime.
“He killed two really good people,” she told The Washington Post on Friday.
“This man thoughtlessly and recklessly took his own life and completely ruined my life because he was my husband and I was meant to start a life with him.”
“I just want the utmost justice to be served,” his grieving fiancé added.
“I just need some kind of relief and I need to know that this person is going to pay for the life he took.”
She also said this was the first step towards “getting justice for Kirk and Robert.”
“While it is a source of relief to us that the man who recklessly took the lives of two of our loved ones is now in custody, please understand that this is only the first step on a long road to justice,” she added.
“We will not allow Kirk and Robert's lives to be taken in vain and will continue to work to ensure this never happens again.”
Walker and McLaurin, who own a rental car company, had been celebrating a bachelor party for a groom-to-be when their black and orange Dodge Challenger was struck near West 154th Street.
Weaver said detectives had told him the cowardly driver who hit and killed the two and then fled on foot “left his DNA on the airbag” of the car when the safety system deployed during the crash, and they hoped to use that residue to identify him.
Police said the driver of the pickup truck, along with his injured passenger, attempted to flee the scene but only made it about 30 feet before being caught by officers.
The injured Manhattan man was hospitalized, but it was unclear if he would face any charges.
After the fatal crash, Mayor Eric Adams donated $1,000 of his own money to help capture the fleeing driver.
“All accidents are horrible accidents, but some turn into Shakespearean tragedies,” he said at the time.
