BROOKLYN — Friends and family of a Greenpoint man who died after a bike crash in Williamsburg was remembered Tuesday as a funny music lover.
Christopher Meyer, 32, was just blocks from his apartment when he fell from his bike on Meeker Avenue near Frost Street about 4 a.m. Monday, according to the NYPD.
“Christopher was a really funny guy who could make everybody laugh,” his younger sister, Kimberly Meyer, 29, said Tuesday. “I always knew he had my back. I could call him in the middle of the night no matter what.”
Growing up, the siblings reenacted their favorite movies for their parents, Kimberly recalled.
“His favorites were 'Some Like It Hot' and 'The Odd Couple,'” she said.
Meyer began playing guitar when he was about 6 and loved to play at backyard barbecues on Long Island, his sister said.
The self-described record snob had worked at Permanent Records in Greenpoint for about six months, coworker Matthew Milligan, 27, said.
“He had a very big and infectious personality. He was instantly liked,” Milligan said. “It felt like he had been here forever.”
Around the record shop, Meyers was known as a goofball, cracking jokes with coworkers and customers. He usually rode his bike to work, Milligan said.
Although he enjoyed all genres of music, Meyer was particularly fond of metal.
“Anything from the really heavy stuff to the cheesier glam metal,” Milligan said.
Aside from music, Meyer also had a passion for animals. He and boyfriend Jimmy Newborg, 25, had recently adopted a kitten with one missing ear that they named Van Gogh.
Newborg, who had lived with Meyer in Greenpoint for more than a year, said the pair met at the Lorimer Street bar Metropolitan.
“It was lesbian night and we were the only two guys," Newborg said. "It all started from there.”
Meyer had been heading home from that same bar the morning he died, Newborg said. He often played pool at Metropolitan on Sunday nights.
After the crash on Monday morning, police said a hit-and-run had occured.
But the NYPD's Collision Investigation Squad later found that Meyer fell under the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway when his bike's front tire hit a curb, throwing him to the ground, police said Tuesday evening.
Services for Meyer will be held Friday on Long Island, where his parents live. Donations can be made in his name to the Brooklyn Animal Resource Coalition (BARC) shelter, Newborg said.
