The widow of a man mowed down when a minor Upper East Side fender-bender escalated into a fatal clash thought her beloved spouse was simply running late when he failed to pick her up after work.
Alex Garcia, 53, told the Daily News she finally made a Wednesday call to husband Robert Velez Alvarez — and learned he was at New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell after a social worker answered his cell phone.
“I took a cab and I went to the the emergency room and they don’t tell me anything,” she said Thursday. “I knew something bad happened. But I never thought that. I thought maybe he’s in surgery.”
She instead discovered Velez Alvarez was already dead, killed when a driver ran him down in a deadly altercation.
A doctor broke the news of the 54-year-old’s death , leaving the widow to defend her spouse after police said Velez Alvarez exited his car with a knife and slashed the rear tires on the other vehicle.
“That’s not my husband, the one the media is writing about,” insisted Alex Garcia. “I don’t know what happened yesterday. When I hear that he had a knife or something? No. I’ve been his wife for 29 years. Never. He doesn’t even yell.”
Velez Alvarez was then run down by driver whose tires he slashed, police said. Andre Mosby, 26, was taken into custody at the scene and later charged with manslaughter and assault.
Mosby was riding with his girlfriend and their three kids, who watched in horror from their vehicle. Police said the slain man had no prior arrests.
Mosby’s girlfriend Quenteria Daniels, 27, recounted the terrifying scene before the stabbing as she watched from inside the car.
“We were frightened,” she told The News. “We were terrified. My kids were screaming and shouting … He raised his hand with the knife at us.”
According to authorities, the incident exploded into violence after Velez Alvarez exited his Chevy Silverado and began plunging a knife into the tires of the accused killer’s Volkswagen Jetta.
Kamel…
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