Two days before he died in a collision with a box truck driver, Brooklyn bicyclist Emmanuel Patterson came home during his lunch hour on a mission of mercy — he was looking through his things to clothe a homeless woman.
Patterson, 56, worked for the Parks Department at Wingate Park in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, and he wanted to help the woman, who he met at the park, his mother recalled.
“He was on his lunch hour and he was rushing,” said his mom, Mary Patterson, describing how he grabbed a knit wool cap, a winter jacket and some clothing. “He started looking through his things, he said she’s living in the park and that he’s going to give her some clothes.”
She helped him clean the clothes with a lint roller before he headed back out.
“He was helpful, he would help everyone.He was always giving,” she said.
Patterson was biking along Clarkson Ave. in East Flatbush at about 10 a.m. Wednesday when a box truck struck him near Rogers Ave., witnesses told police.
Patterson and the truck’s 26-year-old driver were both going west when the motorist tried to make a right turn, cops said. The driver stayed on the scene.
Courtesy of the victim’s family
Emmanuel Patterson, 56 was struck and killed by a box truck in Brooklyn on Wednesday while riding this bicycle. (Courtesy of the victim’s family)
“I just want him to be remembered as a good man. He was a nice, sweet, caring person,” Patterson’s mother said. “”He was always giving, always trying to help people and give kids advice and he was really nice.”
Patterson’s life had been touched by tragedy — his cousin, NYPD officer Troy Patterson, was shot in a botched Brooklyn robbery in 1990, and remained comatose until his death in April.
“That incident affected Manny, when he heard about it he was so hurt,” Mary Patterson said. said. “That bullet did a lot of damage to Troy.”
Before the shooting, the two cousins were close, she said.
“They grew up as kids at the same time,” Mary Patterson said. “They had some good times together … They grew up with each other and would always hang out.”
Emmanuel Patterson loved to DJ, earning the nickname “MP3” — a play on his nickname, Manny.
“He was doing it since he was 12. That was a passion for him, being a DJ,” his mother said. He loved old school music … He loved being a DJ.”
He was also a devoted church-goer, “even in his worse times,” his mother said. “He was very respectful, never found him disrespecting women or kids.”
Patterson had two adult daughters and though he had his troubles, he worked hard to keep his life on track, she said.
“We taught him right and then this happens,” she said. “He got his life together, he just got caught up.”
He got the Parks Department gig about four months ago and made the half-mile trip to work from home on his bike because he didn’t drive, his mother said.
She wept as she spoke about the crash.
“Why don’t they blow these horns before they turn? Please be careful driving … “It’s a one-way street, blow your horn before you decide to make a turn.”
She said she always urged him to keep his ID on him, and to be careful.
“He said, ‘Mom I’m always careful,’” she said. “I’m so hurt. I know people die all the time but It’s just the way he went. The bruises, going through all that pain.”
Mary Patterson said she got word from a neighbor he had been hit by a truck and when she got to Kings County Hospital, she was taken to a room to see his body.
“I started moving the sheet down because I wanted to see his injuries, I asked them what kind of damage it did and they said it crushed his entire insides,” she recounted.
She added, “He didn’t deserve to die like this.”
Afterwards, the grieving mom went to see the scene.
“Rogers is a one-way and I’m not sure exactly at what point he hit, but Jesus, it could’ve been a whole family going out taking their kids to school. You take a big vehicle like that? What was he thinking? Don’t they teach these in these classes?”
The city has seen a 73% jump in bicycle fatalities this year — with 26 deaths as of Wednesday, compared with 15 in the same time frame last year — according to NYPD statistics.
Mary Patterson described her son as a careful bicyclist.
“He would look both ways like he was in a car and then this happened,” she said. “It’s so hard and unacceptable, It’s just crazy how this happened … I still feel like I’m in a fog.”
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