11-year-old survivor of deadly July 4th NYC crash faces long road to recovery: ‘He witnessed everything’
The youngest victim of the suspected drunk driver who plowed into a Fourth of July celebration on the Lower East Side faces a long road to recovery — after narrowly escaping with his life and losing the father-figure who raised him in the horrific crash.
Jakob Velazquez, 11, was cared for almost his entire life by Herman Pinkney, who was one of the three people killed when self-proclaimed “addict” Daniel Christopher Hyden, 44, allegedly drunkenly ran his 5,000-pound pickup truck into a group of revelers at Corlears Hook Park Thursday night.
“Jakob is very emotional,” his grandmother Donna Rosario, 59, told The Post on Friday, saying the boy was distraught after witnessing his mother and de facto stepfather being struck by the Ford F-150 near the intersection of Water Street and Jackson Street.
“He’s traumatized — he witnessed everything. He can’t believe Herman’s gone. He won’t leave his mother’s side,” she said.
The boy and his mom, Jessica Pellot, 33, were treated at Beth Israel Hospital for cuts and bruises and have since been released.
Pellot, who dated Pinkney, 38, since Jakob was a baby after separating from his biological father, “is in very bad shape,” following the nightmarish crash, her mother said.
“She’s black and blue around her eye. She has a big bump above her eye. Her arm is swollen. On top of that she broke a bone in her back and she’s gonna need surgery,” Rosario said.
“She’s really destroyed inside — she lost the love of her life. They wanted to have a kid together.”
And while Jakob’s stitches and busted lip will heal, he’ll have to learn to live without the man who raised him like a son.
Rosario said Pinkney was “like a step-daddy to Jakob” and that the pair loved playing PlayStation video games together, one of their favorite shared pastimes. The sign on the boy’s bedroom door even warns visitors: “Caution: Extreme Gaming Inside.”
Heartbreakingly, Rosario said Pellot is wracked with survivor’s guilt, and blames herself for Pinkney’s death.
Recounting the chain of events that led to the devastating crash, Rosario said she had been invited to the July Fourth BBQ at the park, on Water Street and Jackson Street, but declined on account of “too many crazy people around” on the holiday.
The next thing she knew the phone rang — and Pellot’s friend delivered the news that her daughter had been hit by a car.
Rosario hadn’t even begun to process what she was told when her blood ran cold. “Where’s Jakob?” she recalled asking.
She then learned that both her daughter and grandson had been hit by the accused drunken driver who mowed down the group, most of whom were doing a “follow-the-leader” dance while Pellot worked the grill.
Pellot and her son both “went flying” after the impact of the truck, Rosario said.
But her daughter still miraculously found Pinkney and his mother, Lucille Pinkney, 59, who were both pinned underneath the vehicle.
“She tried to help Herman but he was losing a lot of blood. He tried to fight for his life in the hospital but unfortunately he didn’t make it,” Rosario said.
Pinkney’s mother was also killed in the crash, as was East Harlem resident Ana Morel, 43, who was identified Friday night. Pellot and her son were among eight people injured, ranging in age from 11 to 38.
“Thank God Jessica and Jakob survived,” Rosario said. “If Jessica died, I think it would have killed me.”
