NYC family’s holiday agony after granddad killed by unlicensed moped driver in wrong-way horror
A 68‑year‑old man was struck and killed by a wrong‑way moped driver when he crossed a Queens intersection near 93rd Avenue, just days before he was scheduled to pick his daughter up for Christmas, his family told The Post.
Former correction officer Trevor Lloyd Samuels, who immigrated from Jamaica roughly twenty years ago, was walking in the crosswalk at about 6:30 p.m. on Friday when the two‑wheeled vehicle ran him over, NYPD officials confirmed on Sunday.
The incident left his loved ones heart‑broken.
“When we heard a knock, we thought it was him coming home, I was like, ‘Why is he knocking? He has keys,’” the eldest daughter, 45‑year‑old Kievette Samuels, said. “When I opened the door, I saw the uniform, I was like, ‘Oh no’. That’s when panic mode set in.”
“They said he was involved in an accident, and he died, and I’m like ‘He what?’” she continued. “I was like, ‘No, you’re joking.’ I asked them like five times.”
Police reported that the moped driver, 26‑year‑old Yunio Buleje Rodriguez, sustained minor injuries and stayed at the scene until officers arrived. He now faces an aggravated unlicensed‑operation charge, with investigations still underway.
Sam Samuels had planned to fly to Jamaica on Tuesday to bring his youngest daughter—now 17—back to Queens for the holidays, according to family members.
The loss has profoundly affected the family’s holiday plans.
“I have the Christmas tree, it’s in the box,” Kievette said. “I told my daughter yesterday that I’m not going to even take it out of the box. I’m not feeling the spirit, I’m not seeing it. And his room is right in the living room where I would put the tree.”
She believes her daughter, who was especially close to her grandfather, is already struggling to accept the loss.
“My daughter keeps thinking it’s him coming through the door,” she explained. “He was active in his grandchildren’s lives. He came to their graduations, he played his part. He’s a ‘girl‑dad’, and that influence has carried over to the grandchildren.”
Kievette also noted that the moped driver is even younger than her oldest son.
“Basically he could’ve been my child,” she said. “So for me to have hate? No, no. I’m just mad that he did that. I don’t think that was his intention, but with that said, you were going the wrong way.”
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