The man whose gruesome, 20-mile dragging death stunned the city was identified yesterday as a hardworking Ecuadoran immigrant who had been sending money home to his wife and daughter.
Guido Salvador Carabajo-Jara came to the United States four years ago after the birth of his daughter, Erica, and had been sending most of the cash he earned as a handyman and construction worker to his family in his homeland, said friends and relatives.
“He was a hardworking guy. He made $100 to $180 a day and sent it back to his daughter every week,” said cousin Ignacio Quintero, 36.
“He wanted to build a home for her. His family is destroyed. It’s very painful for us.”
A receipt found in Carabajo-Jara’s pocket showed he’d wired cash to his wife, Sonia Solorzano, just before his died. She received the terrible news yesterday.
The bizarre tragedy began early Wednesday in Corona, Queens, when Carabajo-Jara was struck by an SUV as he was heading home after celebrating his 26th birthday, a friend said.
Surveillance cameras showed he walked into the street, looked right and then was hit by the SUV, which had a green light and was coming from the left.
It smashed into him and, seconds later, a van driven by Manuel Lituma, 52, ran him over.
He got hooked onto a metal plate beneath the van and was dragged to the Brighton Beach section of Brooklyn – leaving a horrible trail of blood and gore.
Finally, startled pedestrians flagged down Lituma, who had no idea what had happened.
The medical examiner will try to determine whether Carabajo-Jara was killed by the SUV or died as a result of the dragging. But neither driver is likely to be charged, officials said.
The victim’s sister, Rosa Carabajo, and cousin Felix Jara returned weeping to their Queens neighborhood yesterday from the morgue.
“He was an excellent person, very easygoing, very happy,” Jara said.
“I was in shock. We don’t know how this could have happened.”
The victim had lived with his sister and a roommate, Maribel Rodriguez. “He’d been celebrating his birthday,” the roommate said.
“I was trying to contact him to see where he was because we hadn’t heard from him all day. We were worried.”