Andrea Salcedo

“He was so happy and excited to ride it,” the boy’s father, Djahongir Djalolov, said.

The bike was big and heavy. His father or his older sister would usually carry it down the three flights of stairs from their Brooklyn apartment. On a recent Saturday, Dalerjon took it out for a ride with his friends.

Dalerjon, 10, was hit and killed Oct. 5 by an unlicensed driver while biking steps from his home in the Kensington neighborhood. The boy’s 14-year-old sister knows her brother is gone, but his 5-year-old sister keeps wondering when he is coming back.

“She is asking, where is he?” Djalolov said. “Is he coming already?” They tell her: “He is far away. When you grow old you will see him.”

His death comes at a time when biking fatalities across the city have surged. So far, 25 cyclists have been killed in 2019, 15 more than in all of last year and the highest number in two decades.

While the numbers are stark, they fail to capture the anguish behind every death, the sudden and violent loss of a mother, father, daughter or son. Dalerjon’s death has devastated his family. Photos of the boy dominate the living room, where his father struggled to speak about what happened to his son.

Mayor Bill de Blasio has declared the increase in deaths an “emergency” and officials have pledged to take steps, such as adding more bike lanes, re-timing traffic signals to give cyclists priority and redesigning intersections, to make the streets safer. Still, de Blasio has come under criticism from bicycling advocates who say he is moving too slowly.

Dalerjon lived on a relatively narrow two-way street with no bike lane. His family had strict rules for when he went outside, they said. He was not allowed to go farther than a block from home, and nearby Ocean Parkway, a busy, multilane thoroughfare, was off-limits.

“He knew that the rules were to remain in the perimeter,” Djalolov said, speaking mostly in Russian through a translator.

The family emigrated from Uzbekistan about a decade ago after winning a green card in a lottery. But beyond talking about his son, Djalolov did not want to provide many details because he wanted to protect his family’s privacy.

On the day he died, Dalerjon wanted to wake up around 5 a.m., earlier than usual, to go with friends to a neighborhood mosque for morning prayers, Djalolov, 39, said.

By the time Dalerjon returned home for breakfast, he was too restless to eat. He wanted to play outside with his friends like he usually did on weekends.

His father did not know that his son’s bike was already downstairs.

Dalerjon did not make it far. At about 10:30 a.m., as he rode his bike in the crosswalk on Foster Avenue, a man driving a 2002 Ford Explorer on Seton Place turned left onto Foster Avenue after the light turned green and hit the boy, according to a criminal complaint.

The man, Victor Mejia, got out of his car. Dalerjon was on the road, unresponsive and severely injured, the complaint said.

The boy’s crumpled orange bike was caught under the sport utility vehicle. Mejia remained at the scene, shaken by the accident, his lawyer, James Kirshner, said.

Dalerjon was taken to Maimonides Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. Mejia, 29, was later arrested and charged with driving without a license, failing to exercise due care and failing to yield to a pedestrian.

If he is convicted, the most severe punishment he would face is a three-month jail sentence.

Mejia declined requests for an interview.

“He didn’t see the boy,” Kirshner said. “Mr. Mejia and his family are remorseful and feel bad for what occurred. It was a tragic accident.”

Mejia is a construction worker from Guatemala who lives in Brooklyn with his wife, his lawyer said. The morning that Dalerjon died, Mejia was driving to a friend’s house.

Dalerjon’s death has shaken the neighborhood, where far fewer children are now riding their bikes on the streets.

“I’m scared,” said Mokhigul Tukhliyeda, who has four children. “I’m not allowing my kids to go outside.”

Her 5-year-old son’s scooter has been put away and her 14-year-old son is not likely to get the bike he keeps asking for, Tukhliyeda, 36, said.

“No way,” she said. “I’m not buying it for now.”

Estee Halberstam, who recently moved to the neighborhood, said it did not take her long to realize the challenge its streets pose.

“There’s no place for the kids to play, and there’s nearly no place for the cars to drive,” Halberstam, 24, said. “Unless you are extremely cautious, it almost makes sense that something like that could happen. It could have been me driving.”

The city’s transportation commissioner, Polly Trottenberg, said several factors have contributed to the rising death toll on New York’s streets: a surging internet economy that has resulted in more truck traffic, the popularity of sport utility vehicles and the transformation of once industrial areas into residential neighborhoods, especially in Brooklyn.

Trottenberg said officials “have been horrified at this year’s loss of life and grieve especially hard for the 11 children lost this year, including those on their bicycles.”

The spot where Dalerjon was killed is a typical city intersection where parking is permitted close to the crosswalk, limiting visibility, said Marco Conner, a deputy director of Transportation Alternatives, a group that promotes bicycling.

“This is where elected officials and communities need to decide whether they want to prioritize saving someone’s life or parking,” Conner said. “That’s what it comes down to.”

Since Dalerjon’s death, city officials have imposed new parking restrictions along the street where he was killed to create more room and improve sightlines.

Inside Dalerjon’s apartment, his father struggled to talk about the boy he brought from Uzbekistan when he was a baby.

“That’s enough,” Djalolov said more than once, placing his palms over his face. “I’ve said everything.” But minutes later, he would break his silence to describe photos and videos of the boy he keeps on his phone.

Dalerjon would spend hours on his iPad watching YouTube videos of the police chasing suspects or the Dobre Brothers, four brothers who post videos of themselves dancing and doing backflips. He also made his own videos. In one, the boy and his older sister challenge each other to see who could eat a dish of spicy noodles without taking a sip of water.

“He was a unique boy,” Djalolov said. “Everyone loved and adored him.”

His younger sister sat with the boy’s iPad on her lap as she swiped and pointed at photos of her brother with pride.

There he was, with his body half buried in the sand at Brighton Beach or riding his bike outside a deli.

Photos of the boy also filled the living room, including one in which he wore a tuxedo at a recent family wedding. One table held his favorite chocolates, Ferrero Rocher truffles wrapped in gold foil.

He also enjoyed dress-up games. Some days he was a pizza cook, a firefighter or a police officer, which was what he planned to be on Halloween.

His room is still full of his toys. His bike, however, is no longer there. It is in the hands of the Police Department, being used as evidence as the authorities continue to investigate the boy’s death.

This article originally appeared in

He Got a Bike for His 8th Birthday. He Was Killed Riding It.

NEW YORK — The bicycle was a present two years ago for Dalerjon Shahobiddinov’s eighth birthday. He chose the model himself: It was bright orange, sprinkled with black and white dots.

The boy ran toward a nearby hospital, but collapsed and bled to death before he could get help. The police later determined that the gang members had mistaken the teenager for someone else.

On Friday, five of the men seen on the video attacking the youth, Lesandro Guzman-Feliz, known as Junior, were sentenced to life in prison in a Bronx courtroom, after being convicted of murder and gang assault in June.

Justice Robert Neary called the killing “senseless,” “savage” and “cowardly” as he sentenced the first defendant, Jonaiki Martinez Estrella, 25, who prosecutors said had struck the fatal blow. “Why?” the judge said. “To be held as a big shot in a gang? I am not sure you sense the magnitude of what you’ve done.”

Before Neary handed down the sentences, Lesandro’s parents spoke emotionally of their loss. “That night, there were two deaths: Junior and I, who was left dead inside,” his mother, Leandra Feliz, said. “If it were up to me, I would sentence these murderers to 300 years in prison.”

Lesandro was walking alone at about 11:40 p.m. on June 20, 2018, in the Belmont section of the Bronx, looking at his phone, when he was accosted by several members of Los Surés, a faction of the Trinitarios. The gang had been hunting for enemies and thought Lesandro was a member of a rival group, according to trial testimony.

The men chased Lesandro for blocks, catching up to him as he tried to hide inside the Cruz and Chiky Grocery, a bodega at East 183rd Street and Bathgate Avenue.

The gruesome murder a few minutes later prompted outrage on social media and calls for justice from elected officials and celebrities, including rapper Cardi B and New York Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia. Hundreds of people attended Lesandro’s funeral.

The police later arrested 14 people and charged them with taking part in Lesandro’s murder. Two became cooperating witnesses.

The five men sentenced Friday were found guilty of murder and gang assault in June after a five-week trial in state Supreme Court in the Bronx that provided a look inside the workings of the Trinitarios, a highly organized and brutally violent gang.

The jury took two days to reach a guilty verdict for the defendants: Martinez Estrella; Antonio Rodriguez Hernandez Santiago, 25; Jose Muniz, 23; Manuel Rivera, 19; and Elvin Garcia, 25. Eight others are awaiting trial.

Martinez was sentenced to life without parole. Muniz, Garcia and Rodriguez Hernandez Santiago will be eligible for parole after 25 years, and Rivera after 23 years.

This week the authorities announced the indictment of 15 more members of the same gang, accusing them of carrying out attacks with machetes, knives and fists in Upper Manhattan.

Lesandro’s father, Lisandro Guzman, told the court that since his son’s murder he has struggled to sleep. Weekends have become a “battle to stay busy” for him because those were the days he used to spend with his son. “You will never have the ability to understand the pain you have caused,” Guzman told the convicted men.

Before his sentencing, Martinez apologized to Leandro’s family in Spanish. “It was not my intention to cause the death of this kid, but that day I was under the influence of alcohol and drugs, and I did not know what I was doing,” he said.

Neary, however, was unmoved and gave him the maximum penalty. “Certain words come to mind when I think about your involvement,” he said. “Senseless is one of these words. Savage is another word. But the one that often comes to my mind is cowardly.”

“You and your fellow gang members chased down and slaughtered a 15-year-old, defenseless boy in the most gruesome manner, and we in this courtroom had the misfortune of witnessing it on tape,” the judge said.

Arguing for leniency, the defense lawyers described the mesmerizing pull of gang life for young men like their clients, who they said came from troubled families and had found in the Trinitarios a group in which they felt valued and protected for the first time. The gang has provided the men with money, status and protection in return for their unflinching loyalty in carrying out orders from their superiors.

Rivera’s lawyer, Toni Messina, said his client was too young to fully comprehend what he was doing. “He was 18 years old and was seduced by the cult,” she said.

But the lead prosecutor, Morgan Dolan, argued for life sentences, pointing out that none of the defendants had shown remorse before the sentencing. She also argued that the defendants had gone out that night planning to kill someone and knew precisely what they were doing.

Rodriguez Hernandez Santiago refused to speak before his sentencing, offering no apology nor a plea for mercy. When Neary sentenced him to life, his mother moaned in the gallery and stood up. “My son did not kill him,” she shouted.

Muniz, who at his last court appearance had shouted out that he was a Trinitario “until death,” also said that he felt no remorse for Lesandro’s death, although he offered an apology to the Dominican community and his family for “staining” their reputations. Speaking Spanish, he described the attack as “something that got out of hand, something that wasn’t justifiable.”

“I did not kill him,” Muniz said. “That’s why my conscience is clean. I do not care about you believing me.”

Neary told Muniz he was a disgrace to his family. “You should be a poster boy for any young man contemplating to join a gang,” the judge said.

Five Trinitarios Sentenced to Life in Hacking of Teen

NEW YORK — The killing, captured on video, rattled New Yorkers like few in recent memory: A 15-year-old boy frantically ran into a deli and begged a clerk to let him hide behind the counter. Members of the Trinitarios gang charged in and dragged the teenager out onto the sidewalk, where they hacked him with knives.

For nine months, the girl said, she could not escape Elias Dowdy, a fellow senior at her upstate New York high school who had raped her in his bedroom.

The girl, Taylor, had obtained an order of protection that prohibited Dowdy from coming near her at home or at a job while the criminal case against him proceeded. But the order did not apply at Niagara Wheatfield High School, where Dowdy, a star lacrosse player, roamed freely while he waited for his court date.

The school system’s handling of the rape charges against Dowdy jolted Niagara, a rural, working-class town outside Buffalo, touching off a fierce debate over whether high school administrators are equipped to address what some experts say is an epidemic of sexual misconduct and assaults by teenagers across the nation.

Taylor just barely graduated in June and Dowdy was eventually expelled from the school, but the questions about the case continue to roil this community into the new school year.

Niagara Wheatfield High School’s principal, who was placed on administrative leave in June over his handling of Taylor’s case, formally resigned Wednesday.

The school district has yet to release findings of an investigation that it ordered into how Taylor was treated.

Universities and colleges in the United States have developed extensive procedures for handling sexual abuse among students, although the rules have been criticized by victims’ advocates and those who believe the rights of the accused are not being protected.

But thousands of secondary schools across the country appear to be far less prepared, education experts said.

Such cases fall under Title IX, the federal law that prevents sex discrimination in education. But the rules for dealing with sexual misconduct and assault in secondary schools are often not clear — if they exist at all — leaving victims to feel powerless and educators to wonder about the proper steps to take, the experts said.

New York state law requires schools to create policies for handling sexual misconduct and assault, and to open investigations that must be completed promptly after incidents are reported.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it had found that 7.4% of high school students reported having been “physically forced to have sexual intercourse when they did not want to.” (The split was 11.3% of female students and 3.5% of male students.)

Last month, federal education officials ordered the Chicago public school system to overhaul the way it deals with sexual harassment and violence, citing “widespread” failures to respond to complaints of sexual misconduct and assault by students and staff members.

The federal officials detailed cases in which the Chicago district failed to support students who had been groped, grabbed and fondled by peers and failed to take action against adults who engaged in misconduct — including sexual relations — with students.

Even those who were unhappy with how Niagara Wheatfield officials handled Taylor’s case acknowledged the challenges that such allegations present. For several months, Dowdy was charged but not convicted, and thus entitled to a presumption of innocence and the right to a high school education, they said.

Still, Taylor’s case offers more evidence that school districts often seem to be stumbling in their approach to sexual abuse among students.

Even after Dowdy pleaded guilty to third-degree rape in May, he was allowed to remain in school and assured that he could attend prom and graduation, Taylor’s mother said.

It took a week from when he entered his plea, after the school district had come under intense criticism from Taylor, her family, students and parents, for the school to expel him.

Taylor said she was deeply shaken by what happened during her senior year at Niagara Wheatfield High School, which has about 1,200 students. She said there were days when she could not bring herself to go to school because she knew that Dowdy would be there.

“I tried to go and then I’d just stop and look at myself and then go back upstairs,” Taylor, now 18, said, her voice breaking during an interview at her grandfather’s home, about 9 miles from Niagara.

“I didn’t want a yearbook,” she said. “I wanted to erase everything.”

Taylor agreed to be interviewed on the condition that her last name not be used.

Leslie Camp, Taylor’s mother, who has a different last name, said Taylor had “died a little every day.”

“She is slowly, very slowly, making very small steps and coming back to us,” Camp said. “But she’s been gone for a long time.”

Daniel G. Ljiljanich, the superintendent of the Niagara Wheatfield Central School District, said in a statement that Taylor’s case had been “very challenging” and that the district had to “let the judicial system take its course” and assume Dowdy’s innocence until he pleaded guilty.

“We did try to take steps to minimize the students’ contact together,” Ljiljanich said. “But as we only have one high school and the court’s proceedings were still ongoing, we were not in a position to bar the accused from attending school.”

Dowdy entered his guilty plea on May 23, and Camp said she notified the school about it the next day.

Ljiljanich said in his statement that Dowdy had been expelled “when the court determined” that he was guilty.

But, according to the school district’s website, the expulsion did not happen until May 31 — two days after Camp posted a Facebook message critical of the school’s response.

On June 6, Michael Mann, the Niagara Wheatfield principal, was placed on administrative leave pending the findings of an independent investigation. He resigned Wednesday, though the findings have yet to be made public.

Mann did not respond to multiple phone calls and emails seeking comment. The acting principal, Jeffrey White, referred questions to Ljiljanich.

Under Title IX, the high school should have started an independent investigation into Taylor’s case as soon as her mother notified administrators that Dowdy had been charged, regardless of whether there was an active criminal inquiry, education experts said.

The school should have also taken steps to address possible threats to Taylor by changing class schedules, assigning a school employee to monitor Dowdy to ensure that he and Taylor did not cross paths, or having an employee escort her to class, the experts said.

If such steps failed to keep her safe, they said, the school should have adopted more stringent measures, like having Dowdy take classes online or be home schooled.

Shiwali Patel, director of Justice for Student Survivors and senior counsel at the National Women’s Law Center in Washington, said the Niagara Wheatfield district’s response was not surprising.

“This is a pretty unfortunately widespread issue of schools not taking the steps they are supposed to under the law,” Patel said.

Bill Howe, the former state Title IX coordinator for Connecticut, said that in his 17 years visiting districts to train employees, he regularly encountered officials who had little understanding of the requirements under the law.

“What most likely happened in this school is typical of many schools — no training, poor training, or they might have a policy but it’s not fully explained,” Howe said.

Taylor’s rape occurred in May 2018, after Dowdy had invited her to his home. They went to his bedroom, where Dowdy locked the door and raised the volume on the television, according to Taylor’s statement to the police.

“He pulled me on to the bed next to him,” she said in the statement. “He started wrestling with me. He then pulled off my pants and my underwear.”

In his statement to police, Dowdy recounted the incident differently. He acknowledged having sex with Taylor, but said, “I don’t remember her saying no or pushing me off.”

Dowdy, who declined to be interviewed, was charged with first-degree rape and released on bail. A judge issued an order of protection, and for six months, he had to stay away from Taylor. But the order only specified home and business, not school.

Camp said she met with Mann, the principal, in August 2018 and gave him a copy of the order of protection. She said she showed Mann text messages that Dowdy and Taylor had exchanged in which Dowdy apologized for the rape.

“He told me that Eli had a right to an education,” Camp said, referring to Dowdy, “so he would be permitted to attend school right alongside my daughter and the rest of the students.”

Camp said Mann had assured her that Dowdy would not go anywhere near Taylor.

Early in the fall semester, Taylor said she repeatedly told her counselor that Dowdy’s fifth-period class was across the hall from where she spent her study period.

Months went by, she said, but neither she nor Dowdy was reassigned to another room for that period.

“Some friends used to walk on the side to make sure he wasn’t looking at me,” she said.

Taylor said she also began receiving harassing Snapchat messages from classmates who questioned whether the rape had happened.

“Ur mom found out u got embarrassed n then lied about it,” one message said.

Taylor said she had showed the messages to the principal and the assistant principal, who promised to follow up, but messages kept flooding her phone.

By May, Camp said she had felt “compelled to post on Facebook my disgust for the entire year from the district.”

Her Facebook post touched off an avalanche of comments. Days later, Niagara Wheatfield High School students organized a walkout to protest how the school had handled the case and to demand Dowdy’s expulsion.

Students held signs reading “End of rape culture, even if it means losing a student,” and “Student Safety &gt; School Reputation.”

In a video of the event, Mann, the principal, can be seen walking toward a group of students and telling them that the gathering “looks more like a party than a peaceful protest.” Several students were suspended for participating in the walkout.

“I was upset because I was doing the right thing,” said Skylar Culver, 17, who is now a freshman at Niagara County Community College. “I was standing up against something that was wrong in school and I was being punished for it.”

Jeff Culver, Culver’s father, said that he thought Dowdy had a right to remain in school “until proven guilty,” but that administrators should have kept him from coming close to Taylor.

In August, as part of the criminal proceeding, Judge Sara Sheldon of Niagara County Court gave Dowdy a year of interim probation, after which she will decide whether to sentence him as an adult or a youthful offender.

Dowdy could face up to four years in state prison, a year of local jail time, 10 years of probation or a combination of probation and jail time, officials said.

Monica Crogan, Dowdy’s aunt, said her nephew had kept his distance from Taylor in school. She said she believed that Dowdy had felt pressure to plead guilty to the third-degree rape charge, and that he was depressed and broken.

“Just because he admitted having sex with her, he’s guilty,” Crogan said in an interview outside Dowdy’s home. “That broke him down. It’s stopping him from doing everything.”

Taylor and her mother said a year of interim probation felt too lenient for what Dowdy had done.

On a September evening, Taylor sat on a recliner at her grandfather’s house recalling her senior year.

Whenever she talked about cheerleading or math class, her tone was confident. When Dowdy’s name and the rape came up, she became almost inaudible.

Taylor had plans to enlist in the Air Force after graduating from high school, but for now at least, she said, her life is on pause. She plans to stay at home for as long as is necessary to recover.

“There are ups and downs,” she said, “but I will reach there at my own pace.”

She Was Raped by a Classmate. She Still Had to Go to School With Him.

NIAGARA, N.Y. — She saw him when she got off the school bus, she recalled. She noticed him glaring at her from the doorway during theater class and track practice. Some days, he would walk so close to her in the corridors that their shoulders almost touched. She felt disgusted, she said, and then frightened.

Some made it to the end of the line only to change their mind. “I can’t,” they said, walking away instead of seeing Phoenix and Luna Rodriguez one last time during visitation hours Friday at the Sinatra Memorial Home in Yonkers.

The 1-year-old twins died of heatstroke in the Bronx last Friday after their father, Juan Rodriguez, forgot to drop them off at day care and left them in his car as he completed a full shift of work.

The coffins were too large for Luna and Phoenix’s bodies. Small white pillows were placed in each coffin to fill the gaps, one close to each baby’s tiny feet; the other under their heads.

Luna wore a white dress with a knit cream cardigan. She looked as if she were in a profound sleep. A white headband with a flower matched her shiny shoes, which had small flowers on the top.

Phoenix’s head lay not far from his sister’s. He was dressed in a white tuxedo with a small bow tie and pristine white sneakers with a white hat that matched. His long eyelashes were hard to miss.

Those composed enough to make it to the end of the line knelt to say their goodbyes and looked at the infants only briefly, after making the sign of the cross.

Two large hearts made out of pink and blue roses and surrounded by white roses stood beside each coffin. There was a large flower arrangement depicting a white moon, in memory of Luna, whose name means “moon” in Spanish, and a large yellow sun with a phoenix in the middle in honor of Luna’s brother.

A flat TV screen displayed pictures of Luna and Phoenix, playing in a pool, inside an open cardboard box in their pajamas. It was hard to find one where they weren’t smiling.

Juan Rodriguez, who at times stood in front of the line hugging family, colleagues and friends, was in constant motion. He paced around the dimly lit, packed room shouting “Oh! Oh, my God!” in Spanish.

His wife, Marissa A. Rodriguez, sat in the front row, the farthest seat away from the coffins. Rodriguez approached her and kissed her on the forehead and the cheek. Both looked at a collage of their twins’ pictures without speaking as they embraced. They could not look at the coffins.

“Oh, my Luna, oh, my baby! May God bless you,” Caterina Amparo Valerio, the twins’ paternal grandmother, cried in Spanish, as she knelt in front of Luna’s coffin. She placed her hand on the white veil close to Luna’s face, attempting to touch her.

Minutes later, Valerio knelt in front of Phoenix’s coffin, speaking to him in Spanish. “Oh, Phoenix! Oh, God! Oh, forgive us. Oh, I’m not going to be able to see you.”

Rodriguez has told police that last Friday, after dropping his 4-year-old son at day care, he arrived around 8 a.m. at the James J. Peters VA Medical Center in the Bronx to work his regular shift as a social worker counseling disabled veterans.

Hours later, he left his job and drove a couple of miles before he discovered his twins were not at day care but were lying unresponsive in the rear of his silver Honda Accord.

Rodriguez jumped out and screamed, alerting a passerby who called emergency services at about 4 p.m. Luna and Phoenix were pronounced dead at the scene.

“I blanked out,” Rodriguez told officials. “My babies are dead. I killed my babies.”

That day, the temperature rose to 86 degrees. When the twins were found, their body temperature was 108 degrees; their organs had failed after several hours strapped inside the sedan, according to the medical examiner.

Rodriguez’s wife has stood by him and called the deaths of their twins a “horrific accident.”

Their father, a 39-year-old veteran who served in the Army in Kuwait from October 2016 to March 2017, has been charged with two counts of manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and endangerment of a child. He has pleaded not guilty and was released on bail.

Before joining the Army, Rodriguez obtained his master’s in social welfare at the State University of New York at Albany. Alfredo Angueira, 42, a friend who said he has known Rodriguez for about 20 years and belongs to the same fraternity, “La Unidad Latina,” described him as a responsible father who could not explain what happened.

“In his mind he dropped them off,” Angueira said.

Rodriguez is not the first parent who has left his children inside a broiling car. An average of 38 children die of heatstroke every year, and July is the most common month for deaths of children from hyperthermia after being left in cars.

On Thursday, a composed and somber Rodriguez made his first appearance at Bronx criminal court. He is scheduled to return to court Aug. 27 as prosecutors continue with the investigation, leaving open the possibility that Darcel D. Clark, the Bronx district attorney, could reduce or drop the charges. As of Thursday, a grand jury had not been convened, prosecutors said.

Outside the courthouse, his attorney, Joey Jackson, said Rodriguez had consented to a cellphone and car search and would continue cooperating with the investigation. Jackson called on Clark to do “what we believe is the right thing, and that is, to dismiss these charges.”

Neighbors, colleagues and family members described the Rodriguezes as caring parents. Earlier in July, the parents threw an elaborate carnival-themed birthday party for the twins, complete with an inflatable bouncy house and a cotton-candy machine. Sometimes, Rodriguez would leave work to have lunch with his younger children at day care.

Rodriguez and his wife have not yet addressed reporters, but he was visibly emotional as he held his 4-year-old son and stood beside his two older children, 16 and 12, both from a previous relationship, when Jackson talked to reporters.

“He has nothing at all to harbor or hide, other than to feel misery and sorrow about what happened,” Jackson said.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/02/nyregion/twins-hot-car-funeral.html" id="b6d7b41a-08b4-3732-a3d0-3888df1a89d7">The New York Times</a>.

Scenes of Agony at Wake for One-Year-Old Twins Left by Father in Hot Car

NEW YORK — The line moved swiftly. The closer mourners got to the two open coffins — each covered with a white transparent veil — the louder the sobs became.

The caskets were too large for Luna and Phoenix’s bodies. Small white pillows were placed in each coffin to fill the gaps, one close to each baby’s tiny feet; the other under their heads.

Rodriguez’s wife, Marissa A. Rodriguez, has stood by him and called the deaths of their twins a “horrific accident.”

'Oh, Forgive Us!': Heartbreak at Wake for Twins Who Died in Hot Car

NEW YORK — The line moved swiftly. The closer mourners got to the two open coffins — each covered with a white transparent veil — the louder their sobs became.

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