Cpl. Steve Jorgenson, the 22-year-old Marine accidentally run down on the West Side Highway early Thursday morning, had recently returned from a nine-month tour of Afghanistan and signed on for a six-month course to learn how to detect and dismantle IEDs, according to his family. Reports say that Joregenson was running across the highway so as not to miss his 1 a.m. curfew on his first trip to New York.
Joregenson grew up in Montana and went to high school in Corpus Christi, Texas, before enlisting. Despite losing his best friend to an explosion in Afghanistan, he truly loved military life, his family told the News. "I was very proud of him," said his 73-year-old grandfather, military veteran Terrance Jorgenson. "He loved the Marines. He really thought that was the greatest thing in the world."
"He wanted to be a hero," his widow, Hope Jorgenson, told KRIS-TV in Texas. "He wanted to be out there fighting with Marines. He didn't want to be hit by a car."
Joregenson and some friends had just left a cab when a southbound Acura struck him, killing him instantly. The driver, Daniel Pascal of the Bronx, pulled over a block away and called 911 at 12:52 a.m. He will not be charged with any wrongdoing.
At a Fleet Week event in Gracie Mansion yesterday Mayor Bloomberg began a moment of silence by saying: "Our prayers are with him. Somebody who was devoting his life to protecting all of us is no longer with us."
