A Bronx street packed with Halloween trick-or-treaters turned into a real-life scene of horror Saturday when a car plowed into a group of costumed revelers — killing three people, including a 10-year-old girl.
A cluster of adults and children carrying pumpkin-shaped buckets were strolling along Morris Park Ave. around 4:50 p.m. when an out-of-control Dodge Charger vaulted the sidewalk, authorities said.
The speeding car slammed directly into the group near Bogart Ave., leaving a trail of mangled bodies wrapped in crumpled, bloody costumes, witnesses said.
VIGIL FOR VICTIMS OF TRICK-OR-TREATING CAR TRAGEDY IN BRONX
“The guy in front of my feet, his body was torn in half. He was dead already,” said Kristina DeJesus, a hospital administrative assistant.
“There was a young girl on the side of the car. She was like, ‘Can somebody help me?’ I was screaming at her, ‘Whatever you do, don’t move!’
“I had no time to cry … to react,” she added. “My body went into help mode.”
Louis Perez, a 65-year-old retired Army veteran, who was honored with a Purple Heart for his service in Vietnam, suffered severe head trauma and was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.
“He was the greatest grandfather in the world. He picked up his granddaughters every day from school, he fed them and took care of them,” said his heartbroken wife Miriam Perez. “He was so loved by them. They adored him. He will be sorely missed.”
His 10-year-old granddaughter Nyanna Aquil, who had dressed as a grey cat with a painted nose and whiskers, was rushed to Jacobi Hospital, but she could not be saved. She suffered internal bleeding and severe head trauma, her mourning mother Natalia Perez said.
Nyanna’s sister Yasmina, 3, endured a non-life threatening neck injury, her relatives said.
“My daughter was the best daughter in the world. She never gave me any trouble. She loved to dance. She wanted to be a dancer or a Disney star. She was a beautiful, beautiful girl,” said Natalia, 37.
“It was all because my dad wanted to take my girls for a second round of trick-or-treating,” she added. “Isn’t that crazy? I had already taken the girls earlier.”
Another daughter, 8-year-old Sanaya, was unharmed thanks to her grandfather’s bravery. “She says that her grandfather saved her, he pushed her out of the way,” Natalia said.
The decorated veteran’s wife commended her husband’s final act of courage.
“He died trying to save his granddaughters,” she said. “He was a hero then and a hero now.”
Kristian Leka, 24 — who was watching his little sister Fiona, 10 — was also transported to Jacobi Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Moments before the car barreled into them, Leka tried to push his sister to safety, witnesses and relatives said.
“The car came up very fast and he pushed her out of the way,” Leka’s uncle Lulsh Kanaj, 64, told the Daily News at the hospital.
“He saved her. The car hit him and he went into the wall. His head was crushed. I don’t know what caused the driver to do this.”
Leka’s little sister suffered a broken arm, Kanaj said.
Another 21-year-old woman Greta Luka was injured, sources said.
Perez’s grief-stricken relatives rushed to Jacobi Medical Center
“He was taking her trick-or-treating,” Perez’s firefighter son, also named Louis, told The News. “He was a wonderful man.”
The younger Perez was overheard telling another firefighter, “I lost my niece.”
The driver — identified as Howard Unger, 52 — was listed in serious but stable condition.
Unger was traveling west on Morris Park Ave. when his Dodge bumped the rear of a black Toyota Camry, authorities said.
The Dodge sideswiped a bus, “bears to the left and takes off,” a police source said.
It careened onto the sidewalk, went airborne and struck six pedestrians, sources said.
The car then smashed through a fence in front of a home, leaving it teetering on a brick wall
Witnesses said the Dodge had repeatedly bumped the back of the Toyota, making it appear as if it were intentional.
“It looked like it was road rage,” said witness Laurie Grey Williams. “I couldn’t figure out why he was hitting the back (of the car). He just kept tapping him. He kept coming straight toward this guy.”
But cops have ruled out that road rage sparked the crash.
Investigators were looking into the possibility that Unger’s erratic driving was the result of a medical episode.
Williams’ husband, Elijah, said the driver looked more scared than injured as a group of onlookers, many of them in costume, started threatening him.
“People were trying to get to him, screaming and yelling,” Elijah Williams said.
With Jason Silverstein, Angus Mordant
