Dwayne Haskins’ parents said they will not be attending his funeral service Friday, as they plan to hold multiple memorials to honor the late Steelers quarterback closer to his native New Jersey.
“We have never met or spoken to the wife [Kalabrya Haskins], and we didn’t want our son’s funeral service to be the place we met her for the first time,” Dwayne Sr. and Tamara Haskins said Friday in a joint statement to WUSA9.
The funeral Haskins’ parents referenced was underway Friday morning at the Allegheny Center Alliance Church in Pittsburgh, where Haskins lived with his wife. Haskins former coach at Ohio State, Urban Meyer, was among those in attendance.
Haskins married Kalabrya, who played basketball at Michigan State, last March.
Haskins’ parents said two separate memorials are planned to pay tribute to their son. In addition, a vigil was set up at Ohio Stadium in Columbus, where Haskins competed with the OSU Buckeyes from 2016-18. He would have turned 25 on May 3.
According to WUSA9, a funeral service will be held Saturday from 12 to 3 p.m. at Christ Church in Rockaway Township, N.J. — with a second memorial service planned for Sunday at 7 p.m., at Haskins’ high school, Bullis School in Potomac, Md.
Haskins died after he was struck by a dump truck while walking on I-595 West at the I-95 interchange outside Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. Few details about the tragedy have emerged, amid the ongoing police investigation.
On Wednesday, South Florida Fox Sports host Andy Slater shared audio from a 911 call made by Haskins’ wife on the morning of his death, in which she told the dispatcher the Steelers quarterback was “stuck” on the side of a Florida highway and “had to go walk and get gas.”
A separate 911 call, also obtained by Slater, came from a panicked person who said they had witnessed the highway incident.
On Wednesday, TMZ claimed a crash report stated that Haskins was struck by two vehicles in the fatal accident.
Haskins was training with teammates in Florida at the time he was killed.
