{"id":90698,"date":"2026-05-23T20:19:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T20:19:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/90698\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T20:19:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T20:19:11","slug":"triplets-dad-killed-by-drunk-driver-on-upper-west-side-was-a-ball-of-love-sister","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/90698\/","title":{"rendered":"Triplets’ dad killed by drunk driver on Upper West Side was ‘a ball of love’: sister"},"content":{"rendered":"

The father of triplet toddlers who was killed by an out-of-control drunk driver<\/a> on the Upper West Side was remembered as a \u201cball of love\u201d who just wanted to see the people around him happy.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of mourners flocked to Abbey Funeral Directors<\/a> on Amsterdam Ave. Friday to bid farewell to Michael Saint-Hilaire, one of two men killed in a blistering May 15 crash.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe just wanted people to be happy,\u201d Saint-Hilaire\u2019s sister, Kilsis, told the Daily News, looking over her sibling\u2019s blue-topped oak casket lined with red votive candles at the funeral home. Nearby were photos of Saint-Hilaire in happier times shown on an endless loop.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was difficult to find pictures of him alone. He always wanted to commune,\u201d Kilsis said, fighting back tears. \u201cHe was a ball of love.\u201d<\/p>\n

A funeral Mass for Saint-Hilaire, 35, was held Saturday at Ascension Roman Catholic Church on W. 107th St.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was the youngest of the five of us,\u201d Kilsis said of her brother Michael. \u201cHe should have lived to see us in coffins not the other way around.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause of someone\u2019s senseless irresponsibility, here we are now,\u201d she said bitterly.<\/p>\n

\"Police<\/p>\n

Kerry Burke \/ New York Daily News<\/p>\n

Police investigate after a vehicle struck multiple people on Amsterdam Ave. near W. 109th St. in Manhattan, New York, on Friday, May 15, 2026. (Kerry Burke \/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

Saint-Hilaire was near the corner of W. 109th St. and Amsterdam Ave. when Elvin Suarez sped through the intersection in his Mercedes-Benz SUV and vaulted onto pedestrian island<\/a>, hitting Saint-Hilaire and three other men.<\/p>\n

Suarez, 61, also slammed into a parked, occupied van that started a five-car pileup, police say. He is charged with vehicular homicide, vehicular manslaughter and drunk driving.<\/p>\n

Ruben Sena, a nearby barber, said that moments after the crash, he spoke to Suarez as the drunk driver unbuckled his seatbelt and stepped out of his mangled car<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe asked me, \u2018I hit somebody?\u2019\u201d Sena remembered. \u201c(I) said, \u2018Yes, you hit four people. Are you crazy?\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

After learning what had happened, Suarez appeared shaken and \u201cchanged color,\u201d Sena said. When cops arrived, he was lying on the sidewalk next to his vehicle.<\/p>\n

Suarez later scored a 0.1% on a Breathalyzer test, well above the 0.08% legal threshold for drunken driving, officials said.<\/p>\n

\"MichaelMichael Saint-Hilaire (pictured) was killed by an out-of-control drunk driver near the corner of W. 109th St. and Amsterdam Ave. on the Upper West Side of Manhattan on May 15, 2026.<\/p>\n

Surveillance footage of the crash showed the victims Suarez struck were sent \u201cflying several feet,\u201d prosecutors said Monday as a Manhattan Criminal Court judge ordered him held on $250,000 bail.<\/p>\n

Suarez lived in the neighborhood, as did both Saint-Hilaire and the other victim who died in the crash, Jason Negron<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Funeral services for Negron, a doorman and a father of two, took place Saturday afternoon at Ortiz RG Funeral Home on Broadway near W. 187th St.<\/p>\n

Zubosqui Garcia, 37, one of Michael\u2019s best friends, was hanging out with both victims the afternoon of the crash and managed to jump out of the way when Suarez\u2019s SUV came barreling toward them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt happened so quick, you had no time to react,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cI had to get myself out of the way (of) the vehicle, or now the vehicle would have hit me as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a horrifying scene,\u201d he recalled. \u201cFrom there on, I just like lost my brains. (I was) in shock mode over the things that I was seeing around me. I couldn\u2019t react to what I was seeing. I was screaming, shouting, crying.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CrashCrash victim Jason Negron..<\/p>\n

Garcia said while Saint-Hilaire and Negron were friends with each other from the neighborhood, reports claiming that Suarez was also friends of both victims were inaccurate.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though he was from around the area, we didn\u2019t know him like we know people here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Saint-Hilaire was born and raised on W. 109th St. \u2014 just steps from where he was killed.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe got plowed down right on the corner of our street,\u201d his sister said.<\/p>\n

He was an equipment technician for Mount Sinai Hospital and the proud father of triplets, two boys and a girl.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are going to be 2 years at the end of the month, May 26,\u201d Kilsis said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to miss him. Our whole community on the Upper West Side is going to miss him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The father of triplet toddlers who was killed by an out-of-control drunk driver on the Upper West Side…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":90699,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[101],"tags":[199,6312,35129,37322,10049,2578,200,1453,14869,14870,38,37320,37321],"class_list":["post-90698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-amsterdam","tag-amsterdam","tag-city","tag-county","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-netherlands","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-county","tag-news","tag-nyc-crime","tag-sub-county-region"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116625746693484051","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}