Brother pleaded with fatal Bronx scooter crash victim to wear helmet

A Bronx Army veteran who died from a head injury after crashing his scooter might have lived if he’d listened to his brother’s pleas to wear a helmet.

Alexander Murillo, 44, was just blocks from his home when he lost control of his electric scooter near Givan Ave. and Sexton Place about 11:40 p.m. Nov. 3.

“The saddest part is that the Sunday before he passed away I said, ‘Make sure you wear a helmet,’” brother Deric Murillo, 53, told the Daily News. “That’s the saddest part — if he’d been wearing a helmet he’d be injured but he might still be alive.”

Medics took Alexander Murillo to Jacobi Medical Center in stable condition but two days later he took a turn for the worse and he died at the hospital.

Deric Murillo said his brother already suffered from debilitating back and ankle injuries from serving in a tank crew for the US Armed Forces while stationed in Germany. He had purchased the moped two months ago to help with running errands.

He was returning from his local bodega when he crashed. Surveillance footage obtained by cops suggests he was overburdened with groceries when he hit a pothole and flew head-first over the handlebars, the elder Murillo brother said.

Cops declined to show the family the footage they recovered.

“They said it was too violent,” the brother said. “Once you see something like that, it’s seared in your brain.”

Murillo suffered a head injury in the crash. 

Lights flash atop a police car. (zef art/Shutterstock)”The doctor said if he had been wearing a helmet he might have got a concussion, got knocked out, but he would have lived,” the brother said.

The victim, who loaded shells into tank cannons during his stint in the military, left the Army with an honorable discharge due to medical reasons and lived on the disability he earned for his service, according to his brother.

He used his abundance of free time to dote on his 13-year-old daughter and his mother, his brother said.

“His daughter was his life. His every breath was for his daughter and my mother,” said Deric Murillo. “He took good care of my mom. He was her sole provider.”

The family is now reeling from the unexpected death.

“My family is totally devastated. Nobody in our family ever saw this coming,” said Deric Murillo. “He’s greatly missed but he won’t be forgotten.”