Guyanese man who migrated to NY three years ago, killed at bus stop

Sep 22, 2020 News

(New York Daily News) – Dinner was waiting for him, but Omesh Persaud never got to eat it, crushed to death instead by a wayward SUV as he stood on a Brooklyn sidewalk waiting for a bus home.

Victim Omesh Persaud with Sara Socra (Obtained by Daily News)

Persaud’s last words were about how hungry he was, according to Sara Socra, 38, who had fixed him a plate of roasted pork, fried plantains and rice — and waited for him to return to their Jamaica, Queens, home. The couple considered themselves spouses though they had yet to legally marry.
“He was like, ‘Man, I’m hungry, I’m coming home from work right now,’ and then when he hung up the phone, that’s when he got hit,” said Socra’s son Avinas Singh, 22, who considered the victim his stepdad.
Police and witnesses said Persaud, 47, was struck and killed Friday when a car wash attendant lost control of a customer’s Jeep Commander and mounted the sidewalk where Persaud was waiting for a bus to take him home.
Two days later, Socra was still too devastated to throw away the meal she had prepared.
“She can’t believe it,” said Socra’s son. “She said that he will come again to eat. She can’t sleep. We’re actually scared when she enters the funeral home and sees the body, what’s going to happen.”
Persaud, who normally took the subway home from his construction jobs, was waiting for a bus at Atlantic Ave. and Milford St. about 4:30 p.m on Friday when he was struck. Persaud decided to take the bus because he was in a new part of town to get a work certification.
“That was actually going to be his first time catching the bus, because the train is [usually] faster,” said Singh.
The 64-year-old car wash employee, Joseph Razzano, was pulling the freshly cleaned SUV out of the drive-in car wash when he lost control of the vehicle, cops said. Persaud died at the scene after the Jeep hopped the curb, struck him, and pinned him against a building wall.
Razzano did not have a valid driver’s license and was arrested and later released with a desk appearance ticket for aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle, cops said.
“It’s unfair,” Singh said, “When the cops came, they said the man who was driving, he had a suspended license. It doesn’t make any sense. To me, the guy’s in the wrong.”
“It’s really hurtful the way it happened, that the car hit him to the wall,” Singh added.
Persaud immigrated to Jamaica, Queens, from Guyana three years ago. He worked hard at construction, specializing in welding, but always loved returning home to have a good time and hang out with his stepchildren, relatives said. He was the family goofball, they added.
“We used to work out, go to the gym together,” Singh said. “Last week he bought a new car and he was so happy. He said, ‘Now we can go places.’ Now the car is just sitting there.”
Persaud and Socra, who were acquaintances back in Guyana, bumped into each other on a New York City bus and reconnected, Singh said.
Socra was too upset to speak with a reporter, but posted a heartfelt Facebook message about her loss.
“How to accept that u is not anymore in this world, how to continue my journey in this world, how to enter my home without u at my side?” she wrote. “U always said we born for each other u teach me million of things but never how to live without u.”
Persaud leaves behind three children in Guyana and five stepchildren in New York, Singh said.
At the scene Friday, the owner of the Jeep told the Daily News that the SUV is equipped with a Chrysler Hemi engine that provides more power than regular engines.
“It’s a powerful car,” she said. “He must have lost control and he just tried to turn and he hit the
man.”

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