“You stop by, and the next thing you know,” Mr. Espiritusanto said, “you’re here for a while.”
Mr. Negron had never left the neighborhood. He went to high school nearby and had been working as a doorman two blocks away for the past 20 years, Mr. Espiritusanto said. He loved anime, and, like Mr. Saint-Hilaire, was an old-school wrestling fan. Mr. Negron would bring his wife and their two teenage daughters to Comic Con and WrestleMania, Mr. Espiritusanto said.
On that Friday night, Mr. Negron told the group of friends that he had taken his wife, Jackie Negron, out for her birthday two days earlier. He told them the restaurant, Jacob’s Pickles, had been expensive, but worth it, Ms. Marte said. As usual, the two friends shared their family news, as well as jokes. But the talk kept coming back to family milestones, Ms. Marte said.
The birthday party doubled as a celebration of the couple’s eldest daughter, who is about to go to college, Ms. Marte recalled Mr. Negron saying that night.
“They were great guys, hard-working guys,” Ms. Marte said. “And they loved their families.”
Just a few blocks away from the crash, friends of Mr. Suarez, the driver and a father of five and grandfather of 11, were struggling to understand what happened that Friday night.
“It’s heartbreaking,” said his building superintendent, Rodney Aguirre, 49, who has known Mr. Suarez most of his life. Mr. Suarez had planned to retire this year, Mr. Aguirre said.