By Gus Saltonstall
Jason Negron had just finished up his shift as a doorman at an Upper West Side building on Friday evening when he headed over to meet friends at West 109th Street and Amsterdam Avenue.
Negron had worked for the last 20 years at 545 West 110th Street, just off the corner of Broadway. That Friday, tragically, would be his last shift, as shortly after Negron joined his friends on West 109th, a drunk driver in a Mercedes-Benz hopped the curb onto the sidewalk, killing Negron and Michael Saint-Hilaire and badly injuring three other people, according to police.
“He’ll be dearly missed,” Johnny Guervara, the super of the building, who hired Negron, told West Side Rag over the phone. “I hired him 20 years ago, and when I hired him, he had no experience, but I said, ‘Don’t worry.’ We were opening a brand-new building, and I said, ‘We are going to work it out, we will learn together and I will teach you what I know.’ He became a number one doorman. Reliable. Always on time.”
“He was one to never take off work, only if he needed to be with his family,” Guervara added. “When he would go out with his daughters, he would tell me about going to places like Comic Con. Those are the only times he took off. There were years I would have to pay him his sick time because he was so dedicated to being at the building.”
Negron leaves behind his wife, Jackie, and two daughters.
In the aftermath of Negron’s death, residents of 545 West 110th Street launched a GoFundMe for his family, which had raised $45,000 as of Monday afternoon; according to the site, all funds “go to supporting Jason’s family.”
Multiple residents spoke to the Rag about how beloved Negron was within the building.
“With a wife and two children, Jason obviously meant so much to them, but he also meant a lot to the people in our building. He was such a lovely, sweet, kind guy,” said Betsy West, who has lived in the building for 20 years with her husband, Oren Jacoby. “He engaged with everybody. He found a way to connect with so many of us in the building. He’s a friend. He watched our daughter grow up and go off to school. Recently, he was talking about his daughter going off to college and how proud of her he was.”
Heather Cox, who has lived in the 110th Street building for the last 13 years, told the Rag that “she couldn’t believe it” when she heard the news of Negron’s passing.
“I kept reading the email sent to the building over and over. It didn’t compute. We had just seen him the day before, and he had just gotten off work on that day. It was just unfathomable,” Cox said. “Many residents then immediately went downstairs and talked with Marcos, who had come in for the next doorman shift. The nature of that role as doorman as a gatekeeper — it’s very personal, yet professional. It’s a unique relationship, and Jason was always there for us.”
Residents of the address have set up a vigil for Negron in the lobby, including multiple personal notes.
“We couldn’t believe it,” West said about her family’s immediate reaction. “My husband just kept saying, ‘I just talked to him. That’s impossible.’ Obviously, dealing with death is never easy, but just the randomness and suddenness of this, just felt so wrong.”
Negron was born and raised on the Upper West Side and lived a short distance from the building where he worked.
“The rough part for me is that I wasn’t there,” said Guervara, who described Negron as like a family member. “I was in Puerto Rico. I spoke to Jason three times that day because I had workers in the building. When I found out, I couldn’t believe it. Shocked. No way. As soon as someone told me there had been an accident, I tried calling him. No answer. I sent him a text. Just one word, ‘Jason.’ No answer.”
“I’ve seen Jason on Monday, Tuesday, and Friday for 20 years,” Guervara added. “He’ll be truly missed here. I’m going to miss him. The residents will miss him. And it will be more than me missing him as his boss, or the residents missing him as their doorman. We will all be missing a friend.”
You can find the fundraiser for Negron’s family — HERE.
Subscribe to West Side Rag’s FREE email newsletter here. And you can Support the Rag here.
