‘Everything to me’
Boyfriend mourns vic killed by drunk driver
One minute, a devoted Brooklyn mom was texting her boyfriend and heading to buy gifts for her two kids. And the next, she was dead — killed by a drunken driver who dropped to his knees in the street after the fatal crash.
Uri Hochberg, 47, of Edison, N.J., was arrested shortly after the Friday afternoon wreck in which he plowed into Lakierdra Thomas about a mile from her Williamsburg home, cops said, leaving her devastated partner to mourn the lost love of his life.
“She was everything to me,” said a tearful Anthony Lilly, 33, as he sat alone Saturday in the apartment shared by their family. “She was strong, dramatic, beautiful. Everyone she came across, they just loved her so much. She was one of those genuine souls.”
The 32-year-old Thomas, mother of a 13-year-old son and a 2-year-old daughter, had just left a nail salon to do some shopping for the children when she was mowed down while crossing the street near the corner of Graham Ave. and Broadway, cops said.
Lilly recalled texting with Thomas after she had her eyebrows and nails done, with the couple joking about the cost. She was on her way to pick up presents for the kids when she was struck at 12:45 p.m. by the 2005 Jeep
Grand Cherokee. Thomas was pronounced dead at Woodhull Medical Center.
“We woke up, we had breakfast,” said Lilly, recalling his final moments with his girlfriend. “Gave her some money, and she left out of here at 10 in the morning . ... And that was it.
The last time I’d see her.”
Hochberg was charged with manslaughter and driving while intoxicated. His Brooklyn Criminal Court arraignment was pending Saturday.
“I can’t even process it,” said Lilly. “It’s just unreal to me. None of this feels real.”
Lilly recalled how the couple met after he started following Thomas on Instagram, with their friendship evolving into a romance. The couple welcomed their daughter to go along with her son from a prior relationship.
“She put her kids first,” recalled Lilly, who said Thomas also left behind six siblings. “She was very overprotective of her kids. “She loved them and cared for them. She loved me and cared for me. It’s like I said, she was just like that genuine soul.”
Hochberg, his eyes closed and both hands on his head, fell to his knees in the street before his Friday arrest. The grieving Lilly said he wants the driver to be locked up for a long time.
“That dude has to get life,” said Lilly. “That dude took my kid’s mother. That s—bag got to go away forever.”
Lilly said he was unable to sleep or eat Friday after hearing the news, and sent the two kids to stay with Thomas’ sisters. As he finally walked outside for the first time Saturday, the rain fell down on the heartbroken Lilly.
“You know they say when it rains,” he declared, “that’s because an angel went to heaven.”