He couldn't bring himself to say goodbye.
The single father of the 11-year-old girl killed in Sunday's horrific drunk-driving crash on the Henry Hudson Parkway at first refused to identify his daughter's broken body, then gathered the strength to step into her cold hospital room.
"She looked like she was sleeping," said Lenny Rosado, recalling how he gave his daughter, Leandra, one last kiss on the forehead.
"I told her I'll miss her," he said, blinking back tears. "I just asked God, 'Why? Out of all [those] girls, why mine?'"
Leandra Rosado, a vivacious sixth-grader at the Greenwich Village Middle School, was one of seven girls crammed into Carmen Huertas' car as the drunken woman left a party to begin her drive north to the Bronx.
"Nobody from there saw she was drinking?" Rosado asked in anger. "There were four seat belts and all those kids? There was no common sense last night."
Rosado, a security guard, said he doted on Leandra, who went by the nickname Lily and loved music, art and watching rented movies.
"My daughter's my best friend," said Rosado. "She's my partner in crime, she was my life, my joy."
"She was Daddy's little girl," he said.
Leandra and the other girls piled into Huertas' 1998 Mercury Sable bound for a slumber party at the driver's Bronx house. One of the injured girls later told her mom that Huertas suggested she was unfit to drive.
"[Huertas] told all the girls to raise your hand if you thought something was going to happen," Lisa Vazquez said her daughter Amanda, 14, told her.
"They were skeptical but didn't want to argue," according to Vazquez, who said the children were too afraid to stop Huertas from driving. "This is every mother's nightmare."
Amanda Vazquez, a freshman at George Washington High School, suffered only bruises and whiplash in the crash. The other girls suffered a variety of cuts and broken bones, including one teen who broke both legs.
The single father of the 11-year-old girl killed in Sunday's horrific drunk-driving crash on the Henry Hudson Parkway at first refused to identify his daughter's broken body, then gathered the strength to step into her cold hospital room.
"She looked like she was sleeping," said Lenny Rosado, recalling how he gave his daughter, Leandra, one last kiss on the forehead.
"I told her I'll miss her," he said, blinking back tears. "I just asked God, 'Why? Out of all [those] girls, why mine?'"
Leandra Rosado, a vivacious sixth-grader at the Greenwich Village Middle School, was one of seven girls crammed into Carmen Huertas' car as the drunken woman left a party to begin her drive north to the Bronx.
"Nobody from there saw she was drinking?" Rosado asked in anger. "There were four seat belts and all those kids? There was no common sense last night."
Rosado, a security guard, said he doted on Leandra, who went by the nickname Lily and loved music, art and watching rented movies.
"My daughter's my best friend," said Rosado. "She's my partner in crime, she was my life, my joy."
"She was Daddy's little girl," he said.
Leandra and the other girls piled into Huertas' 1998 Mercury Sable bound for a slumber party at the driver's Bronx house. One of the injured girls later told her mom that Huertas suggested she was unfit to drive.
"[Huertas] told all the girls to raise your hand if you thought something was going to happen," Lisa Vazquez said her daughter Amanda, 14, told her.
"They were skeptical but didn't want to argue," according to Vazquez, who said the children were too afraid to stop Huertas from driving. "This is every mother's nightmare."
Amanda Vazquez, a freshman at George Washington High School, suffered only bruises and whiplash in the crash. The other girls suffered a variety of cuts and broken bones, including one teen who broke both legs.
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