The family of an 8-year-old boy killed by a reckless Queens driver was left shattered a day after the tragedy on – as one witness recalled his mom’s agonized cries.
Young Bayron Palomino Arroyo was fatally struck and his 10-year-old brother Bradley Palomino injured by a pickup truck driver with a history of offenses behind the wheel while they walked with their mother in the crosswalk at 100th Street and 31st Avenue in East Elmhurst at around 4:15 p.m. on Wednesday, cops and family said.
Driver Jose Barcia, 52, is now facing charges in the crash.
“I feel sad for my brother right now,” Bradley, whose arm was bandaged up from a wrist injury, said back at the accident scene where a memorial had been set up Thursday. “My brother was always happy and cheerful. My brother [was] always telling jokes to tell me and my sister.”
“He was very happy,” grieving mom Guadalupe Arroyo, 37, said of her son. “The teacher would say he is the best kid in the class.”
Arroyo said Barcia “should feel bad” for the tragedy as the driver now faces charges of criminally negligent homicide, failure to yield to a pedestrian, failure to exercise due care and driving at an unsafe speed.
Bayron was a third grade who lived with his siblings and both of his parents, relatives said. He had transferred from another school two years ago to attend P.S. 127 with Bradley and his sister Sherlyn Palomino.
The tragedy unfolded when the driver made a left turn immediately as the light at the intersection turned green, “failing to yield” to the family in the crosswalk, NYPD’s Chief of Transportation Philip Rivera told reporters at a press conference Wednesday evening.
The boys were rammed into the pavement – with Bayron, who was struck by the driver’s side front and rear tires, taking the brunt of the injuries, cops said.
Bayron, a third grader at the nearby P.S. 127, suffered severe head and body trauma and was pronounced dead at the scene.
“He was lying [partially] on his side with his head hanging down,” witness Jasmine Ortiz, who lives across the street, said Thursday. “There was a lot of blood around his head. [His mother] was crying, she was screaming. The detective took her away. She went to the hospital in the ambulance.”
“I knew he didn’t make it. He was not moving. The fire department came. They did nothing to him. They just took him away.
“I didn’t hear no crash, no bang, nothing,” Ortiz recalled. “I heard the [boys’ mom] screaming a lot. She was saying, ‘My son die, my son die.’ I ran downstairs. I took the big brother’s hand and I said, ‘Come, come to me.’
“I hugged him,” she added, wrapping her arms around herself showing how she embraced the older brother. “I told his mother, ‘The boy is okay, only his hand.’ He wasn’t crying.”
“He was in shock. I brought him here,” Ortiz said, pointing to her steps. “I tell him, ‘Sit down over here, stay right here.’”
The driver’s 2005 Nissan Titan, had North Carolina plates that racked up a total of 19 violations for speed, parking and red light cameras in the Big Apple – all between 2023 and 2024, police said.
The truck is registered to a company called “Barcia” in the city of Durham, cops said.
Barcia, of Flushing, was arrested four separate times in Queens: in March and September 2010 and September and December 2009 – all for aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle, a misdemeanor crime, according to the NYPD.
“I am sad and mad about what happened,” family friend Esmeralda Leon told The Post in Spanish. “[These drivers] are careless. They don’t follow the rules.”
Leon recalled that Bayron’s sobbing mom called her a short time after her son was fatally struck.
“She was crying hysterically. He was crossing the street with his mother and his brother…..” Leon said before trailing off.
“[Bayron] is a good boy,” she said. “He loved to play soccer. He wanted to be a soccer player. He loved Lionel Messi.
Adding to the family’s grief, Bayron lost his life weeks before his birthday, April 8, Leon said.
“His mother said he was telling her he wanted a birthday party,” she said. “He wanted cartoons.
“He was so young. He never got to [live] his life.”
Salome Lenis, 10, a fifth grader at P.S. 127 who is best friends with Bradley, described Bayron as “very nice.”
“He was a very sweet boy and he has just started to make friends but he was part of the community,” Salome said. “It is very tragic, very sad, you know. Not every day this happens, but I feel like very bad for him because he was only a little boy. He deserved like so much better.”
The driver’s arraignment was pending Thursday evening.
Meanwhile, the family reached out to the Mexican consulate for help.
“Early Thursday morning, once we learned that Mexicans were unfortunately involved, we established contact immediately and later we welcome both parents at the consulate facilities,” Jorge Islas López, consul general of Mexico in New York, said in a statement. “We express them our deepest condolences, and we offered them all the consular and legal advice needed, as well as all the support within our reach.
“One of our consular officers is accompanying the family to assist them, providing continuous support and guidance through every step of the necessary procedures with both the city authorities and funeral homes,” he added.
“Lastly, the Consulate will do anything at hand, in order to bring justice to Bayron’s family. There should be no impunity.”
