A lawsuit was filed in the State Supreme Court against Syosset teen Jimmy Connors, who was charged with murder in the second degree and leaving the scene of an incident without reporting following a wrong-way crash on Henry Hudson Parkway, which killed Kirk Walker and Robert McLaurin on Aug. 24, 2024.
Walker’s fiancée, Shauntea Weaver, filed the suit against Connors, as well as the Manhattan nightclub that allegedly served him alcohol and New York Police Officer Boubacar Barry, Newsday reported. Weaver was set to marry Kirk on Aug. 25, 2024, the day following the crash.
Connors, 17 years old at the time and reportedly living in a juvenile home, allegedly left the scene of the crash and was detained at the Canadian border the following day. According to the suit, Connors is a resident of Ontario.
Connors was driving his pickup truck southbound on the Henry Hudson Parkway in the northbound lane at approximately 2:25 a.m. on Aug. 24, 2024, according to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, Jr.
Bragg said Connors collided with a vehicle driven by Walker at West 165th Street. He said Connors left his vehicle, which was “eventually engulfed in flames,” jumped across the center median into the southbound lanes and entered the woods.
Walker and his cousin Robert McLaurin, who had been in the passenger seat, were brought to hospitals and pronounced dead, Bragg said.
Bragg said on Aug. 25, 2024, Connors was “detained at the Canadian border attempting to flee.” He said Connors was walking with a limp, had “cuts and bruises on his face and stomach,” and blood on his shirt.
“This incident is a horrific tragedy, and my heartfelt thoughts are with the loved ones of Mr. Walker and Mr. McLaurin. Mr. Walker was set to get married the next day and these families should have been celebrating that joyous occasion,” Bragg said in October.
Connors was charged with murder in the second degree, manslaughter in the second degree and leaving the scene of an incident without reporting, according to Bragg. Newsday reported that he pleaded not guilty.
The suit filed by Weaver, on behalf of Walker’s estate, says Mixx Lifestyle Inc.’s club, Nebula, unlawfully served Connors alcohol at its 135 W. 41st St. location. Court documents say Connors left the location while intoxicated and operated his truck.
The suit says Connors collided with a “third-party motorist,” which Police Officer Boubacar Barry witnessed. Court documents say that Connors was “fleeing” Barry when he collided with Walker’s vehicle.
“As a direct and proximate result of the conduct of Defendants Connors and Barry, Kirk Walker sustained fatal injuries and was killed,” the suit says.
