Vigil for two men struck, killed by car in Port Richmond shopping center

PORT RICHMOND (WTXF) - More than a dozen people gathered for a memorial for 56-year-old David Abshire and his friend Tom Papineau. It was held outside the Dollar Tree on Aramingo Avenue where the two men lost their lives last week in the spot where they sat every day.

The pastor of the church they attended read scripture while people who knew them payed their respects. The victim's pictures hung above where they were sitting the night they were killed.

"They weren't homeless. They had an apartment together. This was just their hang out," said Robin Abshire. She's a niece of one of the victims.

"David was all we had left on my father's side and now he's gone," she said. The family is grieving but also angry. Police say a mother was teaching her 15-year-old daughter to drive and instructing her how to pull forward into a parking space when the girl plowed into the two men sitting along the sidewalk.

This was around 8:45 last Tuesday night.

"My uncle lost his life due to someone's stupid decision and it's not fair," said Robin. The victim's two other friends who were out there when it happened are still visibly shaken up.

"I got hit with the bumper," said Robert Kennedy. He says it happened as he tried to push his friends out of the way when he saw the car's headlights. But he could only save one of them.

"He shoved me out of the way if not I would have got pinned up against the wall too. By the grace of God, he saved my life," said Tim Stewart. Robin says someone should be held accountable.

"So other people don't make the stupid mistake of letting children drive in a parking lot where there's innocent people," she said.

Police say the case has been handed over to the District Attorney's Office which will decide if charges will be filed. That could be decided this week.

Meanwhile, the family of one of the men has set up a GoFundMe to help raise money to bury him.