VIDEO: Queens senior citizen in wheelchair fatally struck by unlicensed driver, neighbors devastated: ‘Crying like hell’ (EXCLUSIVE)
A Queens senior citizen, on his daily morning wheelchair trip to a nearby store, never made it home.
Larry Holmes, 73, was struck and killed this past weekend by an unlicensed box truck driver who came to a halt before suddenly plowing into the helpless victim on a Far Rockaway street.
The truck dragged the wheelchair beneath its front bumper before Holmes was tossed to the pavement down the block, gruesome video of the fatal crash shows.
“He was just coming out and the guy [ran] over him like he didn’t see him,” said John Jarbin, 65, the dead man’s next-door neighbor in the Central Assisted Living facility. “I was crying like hell cause I knew it had to be him. Everyone ran out of the facility to see what happened.”
Emilio DiSiervi, administrator of the residence that Holmes called home for the past three years, remembered him as “an old-school guy” who was unfailingly polite.
“Larry was a very quiet man who kept to himself,” said DiSiervi. “Very appreciative, kind. Man of very few words, but he always said ‘Thank you’ when you did something for him. We’re devastated.”
Holmes, who typically visited a corner store to buy beer and a few more items, headed for the supermarket because his usual stop wasn’t open yet, said the administrator.
A neighborhood deli owner recalled watching the horrific crash before rushing to aid the mortally injured man shortly after 9 a.m. this past Saturday.
“He was still alive,” said eyewitness Abdul Ali. “I was shouting to him, ‘Hey, Man, Hey, Man, are you all right? Are you all right?’ And he was shaking his head.”
Chilling surveillance video obtained by the Daily News shows Holmes slowly pushing his way across Central Ave. as the truck driver comes to a full stop before inexplicably slamming into the wheelchair directly in front of him.
“The driver stopped, but he said he didn’t see him,” said Ali. “He hit him. He did not stop. It was really bad. ... If I hit a bottle or something, I’m going to hear it. Now imagine a wheelchair. And he just went over the body.”
Holmes died a short time later at St. John’s Episcopal Hospital, police said.
Driver Freddy Saquisili, 42, of Baldwin, L.I., was arrested for aggravated unlicensed driving. Saquisili remained on the scene after running into Holmes with his 2013 International Harvester delivery truck.
He was released without bail after his arraignment this past Saturday in Queens Criminal Court.
Fellow assisted living resident Rudy Rodriguez, 69, echoed his neighbors in remembering the victim as a quiet presence in the building.
“It’s sad, it’s really sad,” he said. “From my understanding, he was very [much] to himself. "
Rodriguez and DiSiervi said the area’s frequent construction work created problems for residents when they ventured into the neighborhood.
“I caution the residents when you go out, you’ve got to be very careful because they are doing construction on the streets,” said DiSiervi.
