‘He would have been a great father’: Marine, new dad killed in Cotuit crash after leaving hospital
A GoFundMe campaign had raised over $150,000 for Kevin Quinn's wife and newborn daughter as of Monday afternoon.
Kevin Quinn and his daughter, Logan Audrey Quinn, who was born at 2:19 a.m. on Wednesday, July 25.
When Kevin Quinn climbed into his 2012 GMC SUV late Friday night, a new life at home was just hours away.
Quinn, 32, a Marine combat veteran and small business owner from Mashpee, was a brand new dad.
The prospect of his new role had once made him a bit jittery, but, by the time his daughter, Logan Audrey Quinn, was born Wednesday, those nerves had slipped away, Rob Dinan, a family friend and fellow Marine told the Cape Cod Times.
He held his baby girl with a smile across his face in a photo that captured the moment.
When he got behind the wheel, he was leaving Cape Cod Hospital one more time before he was set to return to pick up his wife, Kara Sullivan, and their newborn, bringing them all home, together, for the first time, the newspaper reports.
But Quinn never made it back.
Kara Sullivan and Kevin Quinn.
An early morning crash kills two and critically injures a third
“We can’t wrap our heads around this happening. It’s just such a needless tragedy,” Dinan told The Boston Globe, one day after Quinn was killed in a head-on crash on Route 28 in Cotuit. Police scanner reports indicate a Mashpee officer was pursuing a 2000 Toyota sedan that was speeding and driving erratically on Route 28 before the car struck Quinn’s SUV around 12:10 a.m., according to the Globe.The crash, which split the eastbound Toyota in half and set it on fire, ejected the sedan’s 22-year-old driver, Mickey Rivera, of Fall River, and passenger, Jocelyn Goyette, 24, of New Bedford, the Times reports.Quinn was pinned inside his vehicle and removed by emergency personnel but died at South Shore Hospital, according to the newspaper. Rivera was pronounced dead at the scene.As of Sunday, Goyette remained in critical condition at a Boston hospital, the Globe reports.
Rivera was not wanted by authorities at the time of Saturday’s crash but had a criminal record that included charges in connection to the March 20, 2015, fatal shooting of Anthony Carvalho, according to the newspaper.
Rivera, who was listed as homeless at the time and had pleaded not guilty to the charges, was free on $1,000 cash bail and was scheduled to appear in Bristol Superior Court Tuesday, the Globe reports. In 2016, he pleaded guilty to a separate assault and battery charge he received while jailed in connection to the shooting.
The cause of the crash is under investigation by Barnstable and Mashpee police.
“We are in the early stages of what is going to be a comprehensive and thorough investigation into the Mashpee Police Department’s involvement of the facts and circumstances leading up to this terrible tragedy,” Mashpee Police Chief Scott Carline said in a statement.
‘An all-around great guy’
Kevin Quinn.
Quinn served two combat tours in Afghanistan while in the Marines between 2008 and 2011, according to the Globe.
Family and friends said Quinn — who owned Quinn’s Excavation and Septic Inc. in Mashpee — was the kind of person who was always willing to help someone else, the Times reports.
He had been considering becoming a police officer, according to the newspaper.
“He would have been a great father, but now he isn’t going to get the chance,” James Lally, a friend of Quinn, told the Globe. “It’s unbelievable.”
Quinn married Kara Sullivan last year, the newspaper reports.
Kara Sullivan and Kevin Quinn.
“Kevin was an all-around great guy,” Dinan said. “He served his country honorably and gave of himself.”
An outpouring of support
A GoFundMe campaign that will be used to help Quinn’s wife and daughter had raised over $150,000 as of Monday afternoon — with more donations pouring in by the minute.“We encourage all to please support the family of this fallen Marine, a man who sacrificed so much for this country and who spent many hours helping others who were less fortunate while never asking for anything in return,” organizers wrote.
“Kevin was very much excited but nervous about being a father, his daughter, Logan Audrey Quinn, born on July 25, at 2:19 a.m.,” they added. “We all told him that he was going to do just fine as a dad and that we felt really bad for any guy that wanted to date his daughter when she was old enough.”
In a Facebook post, Quinn’s sister, Danielle, wrote that her brother was a proud husband and that “his girls were his EVERYTHING.”
“There are no words to describe the hurt about the loss of my brother … in what should be a Happy Beautiful celebration of the birth of his daughter,” she wrote.
She thanked supporters for their love as the family processes Quinn’s death.
“Please in his memory help us take care of his girls as he was a local business owner and this is an extremely difficult situation,” she wrote. “He should be here and was so excited to bring his baby home.”
Funeral services for Quinn are scheduled for 11 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 6, at Christ the King Parish in Mashpee, according to the Times. Quinn will be buried at Massachusetts National Cemetery with full military honors later that day.
