Amsterdam Ave. Horror Crash Memorial Grows, Drunk Driver Charged

Heartbroken neighbors have erected a growing memorial on the site of the horror crash where a drunk driver leaped the curb on Amsterdam Avenue and 109th Street on Friday May 15, killing two young fathers and injuring three others. An allegedly drunk driver speeding up Amsterdam Ave. in a black Mercedes Benz SUV crashed into two cars around 108th Street before jumping a curb and killing two bystanders outside a barber shop on 109th Street.

The driver Elvin Suarez was initially charged on May 16 with manslaughter, assault and driving while intoxicated after striking two cars which then caused a chain reaction with four other vehicles. At his May 18 arraignment, the top charge against Suarez was upgraded to aggravated vehicular homicide. Police said he was within a few blocks of his home on West 108th St. at the time of the crash.

The deceased were both young fathers: Jason Negron, 46, who lived on at 70 West 93rd St. with his wife Jackie and two daughters and Michael Saint-Hilaire, 35, who lived at 250 E. 83rd St. Saint-Hilaire is the father of triplets, a boy and two daughters who are turning two years old on June 7.

Negron had been a doorman at 545 W. 110th St. for 20 years and had just finished his shift at 4 p.m. that day. A GoFundMe page started by family friend David Mitnick had raised over $44,000 as of May 18.

“Jason had been a dedicated member of the 545 community since the building opened on October 20, 2006,” Mitnick wrote on the GoFundMe page. “For nearly twenty years, he served our residents with unwavering dedication, kindness, warmth, and a wonderful sense of humor. More than a doorman, Jason was a friend to so many and an important part of our building family.”

A fundraiser for the family of Saint-Hilaire had raised just under $10,000 as of May 18. “Michael was the kind of person who would always lend a hand or offer a smile to anyone in need,” wrote Modesto Gonzalez, the best friend of the victim who started the GoFundMe effort. “He touched so many lives with his kindness, generosity and positive spirit. Losing him so suddenly has been devastating for everyone who cared about him, especially his children who now face an uncertain future without their dad.”

His uncle, Jonathan Saint-Hilaire told the New York Post that his nephew had been waiting for his mother’s bus when he was killed. “He was waiting for his mom,” he told the Post. “She spoke to him at 5:53 and the crash happened at 6,” he said. “I’m here waiting for you,” the victim had texted his mom shortly before the crash.

As the horror unfolded, the driver’s vehicle that witnesses said was traveling at a high speed as it raced north up Amsterdam Ave. came to rest against a parking meter stanchion on 109th Street after first striking the vehicle around 107th St. cops said. Police said he first collided with a parked and unoccupied Volkswagen Jetta SUV before continuing north and colliding with a bronze colored Chevrolet Astro van with a 51-year-old man inside. The force of that collision started a chain reaction that pushed the Chevy van into four other vehicles.

Suarez’s own car jumped a curb, flew over a bike lane and crashed into a crowd of bystanders outside a neighborhood barber shop where locals frequently set up tables to play dominoes.

EMS transported four victims and the driver to Mount Sinai Morningside, the former St. Luke’s Hospital, where Negron and Saint-Hilaire were both pronounced dead. Three victims were listed in stable condition.

“Speaking to Manhattan Valley neighbors on the scene, their loss is deeply felt,” said city council member Shaun Abreu on the night of the deadly crash. “No life should be lost this way.”