Vigil Held For Hudson River Park Bike Path Victims

"All of us, I know feel shocked, and saddened and angry that this beautiful part of our daily lives as New Yorkers this incredible stretch of parkland where we ride our bikes and walk with our children and our loved ones was turned into an instrument of death and destruction."  -  Brad Hoylman - New York State Senator


Two women originally from Argentina hold the country flag during the vigil.  Five of the victims killed in Tuesday's murder spree were Argentine. The attack was the deadliest incident of terrorism in New York City since Sept. 11, 2001.  After the march police began installing cement barriers along the four plus miles of bike path, protections the public had been calling for over more than a decade.  (Photos by Geoffrey Croft/NYC Park Advocates) Click on images to enlarge

Manhattan

By Geoffrey Croft

Hundreds of mourners turned out yesterday evening for a candlelight vigil to honor the victims of Tuesday horrific tragedy in Hudson River Park.

The crowed converged at Pier 40 at West Houston Street near where the murderer entered the park.

Parents pushed strollers,  people held hands, some cried, some hugged, others were consoled.  

 They walked in silence along the esplanade, parallel to the bike path twenty feet away, the sun setting over the Hudson River on the right. 

Police on motor scooters lead the precession. 

The crowd makes its way along the Hudson River.

The crowd stopped at Pier 25 where the group gathered to say a few words.

"All of us, I know feel shocked, and saddened and angry that this beautiful part of our daily lives as New Yorkers this incredible stretch of parkland where we ride our bikes and walk with our children and our loved ones was turned into an instrument of death and destruction," New York State Senator Brad Hoylman said in a moving tribute.   

Hoylman, a former chair of Community Board 2 noted that one of the victims grew up nearby and was a constituent. 

"I'm also here to say we stand in solidarity with the victims and their loved ones. Those who lost their lives including a constituent of mine Nicholas Cleves who lives in Greenwich Village. Twenty-three years old and undertaking that very simple and pleasurable experience that so many of us have shared, riding his bicycle,  struck down. We can not explain it but we can be defiant in the face of such darkness and that’s why I think we are here."   

After the march police began installing cement barriers on the bike lane where the vehicle entered, and throughout the four mile long greenway, protections the public had been calling for over more than a decade.

The burning question is why did it take more than a decade and the needless deaths of eight innocent people and injuries of eleven more for the authorities finally install barriers, protections which would have easy prevented this.

West Houston St. & West Street.  After the march police installed cement barriers on the bike lane where the vehicle entered, protections the public had been calling for since at least 2006, more than a decade. 

On Tuesday a terrorist plowed a truck into unsuspecting Hudson River Park bike path users killing eight and wounding eleven more. The horrifying incident occurred around 3:00 when the driver entered the unprotected bike path at West Houston St. and West Street and sped south, indiscriminately hitting pedestrians and cyclists.

Five of the victims killed were Argentine tourists in New York for a 30-year high school reunion. Those killed were Hernán Mendoza, Diego Angelini, Alejandro Pagnucco, Ariel Erlij and Hernán Ferruchi. A sixth member of the reunion group, was among the wounded.  

Another victim, Ann-Laure Decadt, 31,  a mother of 3-year-old and 3-month-old, from the town of Staden, Belgium was also killed. Three of those injured were also Belgian according to officials. 

Twenty-three-year old Nicholas Cleves, a software engineer from the West Village went to Elisabeth Irwin High School on Charlton St, four blocks from where he was murdered.  

Darren Drake, 32, of New Milford, New Jersey was the last person killed to be identified. 

Darren was a project manager for Moody’s Investors Service at the World Trade Center.  He was out for a bike ride, exercising between meetings when he was murdered.

According to his father he would have turned 33 on November 18th.  Darren was his only child.  

(Photos by Geoffrey Croft/NYC Park Advocates) Click on images to enlarge

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