At Mohammad Naiem Uddin’s funeral, his close friend, Maisha, described how she thought they would grow old together playing Chinese poker. Even if they didn’t get that far, she figured that they’d at least still make time to hang out with each other in college.

But when Naiem died on his way home from school in November, plans like these were lost. A freshman at Brooklyn Tech, Naiem was described by friends as quiet, intelligent and generous. He was creative and loved photography.

Naiem grew up in the Bangladeshi community in Kensington, the second of three children. Like his older sister Rabia, he was the valedictorian of his class at PS 130, and a strong student at MS 51 and Brooklyn Tech.

For many of the students who attended the funeral, it was the third friend they’d lost to traffic violence in the past year: Sammy Cohen-Eckstein, Joie Sellers, and Naiem were all in the same grade at MS 51.