The Sudden Loss of the Gaudreau Brothers Stuns Their Rural Hometown
The New York Times
The night before their sister’s wedding, John and Matty Gaudreau were fatally struck by a car while riding bicycles near their family home in southern New Jersey.
On the narrow shoulder of County Route 551, a two-lane road in the heart of rural Salem County, N.J., a memorial appears suddenly among the fields of corn and soybeans. Bunched together are bouquets of flowers, miniature flags and dozens of hockey sticks: an incongruous signpost to a tragedy that shattered two extended families and left a community bereft.
“It just couldn’t be any worse,” said Lee Ware, a local farmer who was once commissioner for Salem County and a local high school baseball coach of 46 years. He knows both families. “I’ve lived here my whole life, and I know everyone in the county feels the same way. This is a rough one.”
On Aug. 29, about an hour after the sun had set, John Gaudreau, an All-Star forward in the National Hockey League, and his younger brother, Matthew Gaudreau, a former professional hockey player and coach at nearby Gloucester Catholic High School, were struck and killed by a driver as they went for a bike ride near their parents’ home. They were preparing for their sister’s wedding in Philadelphia the next day.
John was 31, married with two children, one born in 2022 and another in February. Matthew was 29. His wife is expecting their first child in December.
New Jersey State Police arrested and charged Sean M. Higgins, 43, of Woodstown, N.J., a small village about 10 miles from the site of the collision where the memorial now sits. Similar memorials have popped up wherever John or Matthew Gaudreau (goo-DROH) played hockey: in Calgary, in Canada; in Columbus, Ohio; in Boston; and at the Hollydell Ice Arena in Sewell, N.J., where the brothers skated as boys.
Early data from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority suggests that traffic has dropped around Manhattan’s core.
Brad Lander, the New York City comptroller who is running for mayor, will announce a major plan to address homelessness after a series of violent attacks on the subway.
As state legislatures convene, they face the same political polarization seen in Congress. Some are in near-deadlock.
President-elect Donald J. Trump picked the South Dakota governor to head the Homeland Security Department, which includes the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Carol Acosta, known to her fans as “Killadamente,” transformed herself into a social media influencer with a message of self-love. The Dominican American star died last week at the age of 27.
The committee’s Republican chairman and its top Democrat were briefed on F.B.I. findings into Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s defense secretary pick. Democrats questioned whether there were gaps.
Days after a devastating wildfire, residents of Pacific Palisades have started sifting through the ruins, and their memories.
California’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, and President-elect Donald J. Trump have long feuded. Can the rancor be set aside to help a devastated city recover?
“There were too many houses to protect, and not enough engines,” one fire captain in Los Angeles said. Though fire officials say they were well-prepared and simply overwhelmed by the elements, questions are being raised about whether the intensity of modern fires requires a new playbook.
The Hall Street shelter in Brooklyn, which drew numerous complaints, is among several that will soon close in New York.
Shanti Gooljar grabs some coffee before eight hours of heart-racing driving lessons around New York City. She caps off her day by having dinner with her son.
President-elect Donald J. Trump has worked for years to discredit any and all criminal and civil cases against him as nothing more than politically motivated witch hunts.
Clearing the toxic remnants of burned buildings around Los Angeles will require a complex and expensive mobilization. California has been there before.
An incumbent Democrat narrowly won re-election to the state’s highest court. But the Republican-controlled court is considering an unusual protest from her challenger that could flip the result.
Erden Arkan, a businessman with close ties to New York’s Turkish community, pleaded guilty in federal court on Friday to conspiracy to commit fraud.
Charging drivers to enter Lower Manhattan vindicates the lifelong mission of a Nobel laureate who, as it happened, died behind the wheel of a car.
The judges left in place a lower-court injunction that bars the disclosure of the report for three days, and the Justice Department then appealed it.
The phone call centered on a former law clerk of Justice Alito’s. In the eyes of the Trump team, the clerk still needed to prove his loyalty to the president-elect.