ICYMI: Rollerblader Killed In Hit-And-Run Had Just Reconnected With Estranged Father, Friend Says

BROWNSVILLE, BROOKLYN — Michael Joefield, the 21-year-old pre-med student who was killed in a hit-and-run accident Saturday evening, will be remembered by his friends as the loving, nerdy guy who gave "bone-crushing" hugs and who frequently roller-bladed miles across the city to rush to a friend in need.

“I immediately started crying and screaming when I found out,” said his best friend Irina Terdiman, 22, as she held back tears. “I don’t know why of all the people in the world this is happening to him.”

Joefield was rollerblading in the street near Glenmore Avenue and Powell Street around 8:35 p.m. Saturday night when Terrance Smith, 37, slammed into him with his 2012 Infiniti, police said.

Smith was arrested after he jumped out of his car and tried to outrun police, but was finally captured on the corner of Junius Street and Pitkin Avenue later that night, police said.

Joefield was pronounced dead at the scene and five other victims were rushed to Brookdale Hospital with non-life threatening injuries, police said.

Joefield had recently made important changes in his life, according to Terdiman, who knew him since he was a freshman at Brooklyn Latin School. She said he’d only recently begun to foster a relationship with his formerly estranged father and had decided to study neurology at Medgar Evers College.

“His father had another family and had other kids,” said Terdiman. She added that Joefield sometimes found it difficult to connect to his father, who was very religious, but that the pair had found a new way to spend time together. “They just started taking martial arts together,” she said.

Joefield was an animal-lover who originally wanted to be a veterinarian — he had volunteered a local animal shelter — but changed his mind when a professor at Medgar Evers College began to encourage him, Terdiman said.

“He was passionate about neurology — one of his professors just took a liking to him and started engaging him,” said Terdiman. “He loved science and math — He was a nerd, through and through.”

Joefield hoped to earn his associate's degree from Medgar Evers in December, then start working to earn money as he pursued a bachelor's degree and medical school, according to Terdiman.

Terdiman’s friendship with Joefield began when she was a Brooklyn Latin School sophomore and was “dragged out to eat buffalo wings” with a bunch of freshman, one of whom was a gangly kids holding onto a bag of coins.

“He held up the bag and was like, ‘I’m Obama, I’ve got all this change!’” Teridman recalled. She added that he used the money to buy everybody’s lunch.

Their friendship continued to develop when they both transferred to the City-As-School High School in Manhattan and continued into their college years.

Terdiman still remembers the day when she had an 11-hour shift at her summer job and couldn’t leave to get lunch. When she told Joefield she was stuck, he rollerbladed two miles in the summer heat from Kings Plaza to her job on Nostrand Avenue to bring her a box of Nathan’s hot dogs.

“He rollerbladed over to me as fast as he could, even when it was so hot, just to bring me lunch,” said Terdiman. “That’s the kind of person he was.”

Terdiman had not seen Joefield since January, when she moved to Dallas, but said their conversation was on the telephone a week before he died. She and Joefield’s other best friend Eliot Martini had both moved away, so she wanted to plan a reunion in New Orleans for their next vacation.

“He told me he missed me a lot but he understood why I left,” she said. He told her, “It’s good for you, so I accept it.”

Joefield was happy for his friends, who all seemed to be moving forward in their lives, said Terdiman.

“He knew eventually we both come back to him,” Terdiman said, adding that what she’ll miss most was his “bone-crushing hugs.”

“He’s responsible for all our future back problems,” Terdiman said. “I keep waiting for a sign that this is all a bad dream.”