Moments before he was rushed into surgery, 16-year-old Umedjon Juraev — the teen fatally struck by a box truck as he and two friends rolled past a Brooklyn corner on his e-bike — had just one question for his mother.
“He asked me why I was crying,” Muhabbat Juraev told the New York Daily News in an exclusive interview Tuesday.
“I said, ‘You’re going to be OK. I’m crying because you’re purple.’ He just nodded his head, went into surgery and 30 minutes after they came out and said he was gone.”
Umedjon just got the e-bike three months before the Monday afternoon crash about four blocks from his home, his shattered mother said.
“I’m very upset,” his mother said as she wept while a family friend rubbed her back and translated in the family’s Kensington apartment. “He was an only child. It’s just me, no father.”
Umedjon came to the US from Uzbekistan with his mother in 2017. The tae kwon do gold medalist was about to start his junior year at John Dewey High School and was weeks away from getting his US citizenship.
“He was intelligent,” his mother said. “He went to Latin school. He had a lot of plans for the future. Big plans. He wanted to go to college.”
Umedjon told his mother he was going out to play basketball when he left on his e-bike.
The accident happened when the box truck was turning.
He and two pals were riding the e-bike together behind the truck on Ditmas Avenue but pulled up to its right side just as the truck driver was making a right turn onto Coney Island Avenue about 2 p.m., surveillance video obtained by News 12 Brooklyn shows.
The boys also appeared to be making a right-hand turn but the e-bike teetered and they slid under the truck, the video shows.
Umedjon’s two friends managed to escape the crash with minor injuries, but Umedjon struck his head and he was hit by the box truck’s wheels.
Even though he was conscious and able to talk to his mother, Umedjon died after undergoing emergency surgery at Maimonides Medical Center, longtime friend Diyorbek Abduhafizov, 16, recounted.
“It’s so unexpected,” the teen said. “I was with [his mom] last night. We stayed with her until 2 a.m.”
The boy's mom had support when she learned the devastating news.
Diyorbek was home cleaning when his mother got the call that Umedjon and a 15-year-old friend also on the bike had been taken to Maimonides. He and his mother rushed over to the hospital and were with Umedjon’s mom when she learned he died.
“The doctor told us we needed to speak privately,” he recalled. “She took us to the office and said, ‘We did everything we could do. Unfortunately, we couldn’t save him.’ ”
“It’s just sad,” Diyorbek added. “His mom couldn’t believe it. His mom was crying. She was crazy, shaking, crying.”
“He was my best friend,” the teen said solemnly. “He was always there for me. I grew up with him. His mom and my mom were best friends. Every day I would see him, hang around, go to the park. Go to Coney Island. He was just a really good friend.”
The teen had ideas about his future.
The hospitalized 15-year-old was in stable condition, police said. The third teen on the bike wasn’t seriously harmed and admitted to News 12 Brooklyn that the e-bike was supposed to carry two riders at most.
The driver of the truck remained at the scene, police said. No charges were immediately filed.
A funeral service for the teen was held at a mosque near his home Tuesday.
Umedjon had plans on top of plans for his future, his mother said.
“When he was younger he wanted to be a dentist, but as he grew up he wanted to be a programmer,” she recalled. “More recently he wanted to open up his own business.”
“I just want to tell other parents to be mindful and just be careful so their kids don’t go through something like this,” she added.
-by Colin Mixson and Thomas Tracy, New York Daily News
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