A Queens man killed when a minivan jumped a curb in Chinatown while its driver was trying to parallel-park was a married father of two who worked at a Chinese restaurant near his home, a devastated neighbor said Tuesday.
“Oh my God! I can’t believe he’s gone,” John Agudelo, 53, said of his neighbor, 56-year-old Chun Deng Zhang. “I’m sorry for his wife and kids.”
Agudelo said he had seen Zhang earlier in the day Monday before he became one of seven people to be mowed down at Forsyth and Division streets when Henry Herman, 70, was trying to park a 2015 Toyota Sienna.
Herman was moving in reverse just before 7 p.m. on Forsyth when he lost control of the vehicle and mounted a curb, striking the pedestrians, police said.
Zhang, a Flushing resident, was pronounced dead at the scene. The other victims — two of whom were critically injured — were taken to Bellevue Hospital.
Herman of Monroe, Orange County, was released from police custody after being hit with multiple charges including failure to yield to pedestrians, failure to exercise due care and unsafe backing of vehicle.
Zhang, according to Agudelo, was a native of China and arrived in the US “years ago and worked to bring his family here.”
“They are here now, his wife and two kids, a boy and girl,” Agudelo said, adding that Zhang’s children are now adults.
The neighbor said Zhang worked at the Fu Fan Chinese restaurant on Whitney Avenue in Elmhurst.
“He is such a hard worker,” Agudelo said. “He goes to work early and closes the restaurant at 11 or 12 at night … He makes the deliveries. He brought us food a few nights ago.”
Agudelo described Zhang as a “quiet man” and a “good neighbor.”
“He helps all his neighbors. If you need, he helps you do anything,” Agudelo said.
The neighbor added: “He renovated this whole building himself, with his own hands,” referring to the Zhang family’s home on Elmhurst Avenue.
Mayor Bill de Blasio spoke out about the “terrible car crash” Monday night in a tweet, saying, “We cannot accept loss of life on our streets as inevitable. We will continue working harder every day to reach #VisionZero.”