A man authorities say was fatally struck by a hit-and-run mail carrier’s U.S. Postal Service box truck was a legend in the lower Manhattan music scene making his way home from a big gig when he was killed, the Daily News has learned.
Chester “Chet” Mazur, 66, was crossing Ninth Ave. midblock near W. 55th St. about 5:30 a.m. Saturday when postal worker James Simmons allegedly fatally struck him and fled the scene. Mazur was half a block from home when killed.
The victim “embodied everything that was cool and interesting and weird and creative and edgy and magical and wonderful and kinky and beautiful and free about New York City, especially its art and music world,” Rodney Klein wrote on Facebook. “This is so tragic, he should still be here.“
Mazur was a vocalist for The Rasslers who performed at Otto’s Shrunken Head, an East Village watering hole, late Friday.
Medics rushed Mazur to New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell, but he could not be saved.
Dozens of tributes to Mazur poured in online after his shocking death.
“We’re so devastated by the loss of Chet Mazur,” read a post on the Facebook page for Otto’s Shrunken Head. “You were definitely one of a kind… we’ll miss you.”
Simmons, 61, was arrested later Saturday for leaving the scene of a fatal crash.