A Deadly Weekend

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The intersection of Sands and Gold St., where the Friday night shooting happened. (Cambrey Thomas/The Brooklyn Ink)
The intersection of Sands and Gold St., where the Friday night shooting happened. (Cambrey Thomas/The Brooklyn Ink)

Mourners Reflect Days After Fatal Shooting in DUMBO

By Cambrey Thomas

Two days after Aurelio “A.J.” Manresa, 21, was shot to death outside one of the Farragut Houses at 191 Sands St., the talk of the street was of confusion.

With glass vigil candles and messages written in marker on ripped cardboard boxes tapped to the wall outside of where Manresa lived at Farragut House at 177 Sands, friends and neighbors offered theories of what really happened that Friday night and why.

“He had nothing to do with nothing,” said one resident who declined to be identified. “He was an honest guy trying to break it up.” According to police, a fight broke out in between the two housing projects and, at 11:15 p.m., Manresa was fatally shot in the chest. He was rushed to Bellevue Hospital and pronounced dead on arrival. But police said it was unclear whether or not Manresa was a witness to the altercation or if he was trying to break it up.  The resident said that back at the scene, just two hours after the shooting, mourners began placing candles at the project’s front door; writing messages on the wall, and leaving stuffed animals and t-shirts.

According to the same resident, Manresa was a good guy getting his life together and his family was hysterical when they heard the news. They did not live in the Farragut Houses with him, but they checked in on him frequently.

“Someone said something to a girl,” said one onlooker at the scene. That’s when the details get blurry. Allegedly the woman, someone’s girlfriend, said something back and then was struck by the man with whom she was arguing. After the argument and scuffle, someone pulled out a gun and started firing. Manresa was hit in the crossfire according to the onlooker. He said the alleged gunman was a friend of Manresa.

Leon Fitzgerald, a member of the nearby Church of the Open Door, said he came to the scene to listen to and pray with those in mourning in hopes to deter retaliation.  “He used to come around and say ‘What’s up’ and would go upstairs,” said Fitzgerald. “He kept it moving.”

Fitzgerald said he knew Manresa only in passing through the neighborhood, but he knew that Manresa belonged to a motorcycle club called the “Ruff Ryders” and held a job during the day, although he did not know what it was. He described the motorcycle club as peaceful and said the group frequently worked with youth in the community. A day after the shooting, on Saturday night, the club hosted a large vigil outside Manresa’s building.

Another member of the nearby Church of the Open Door, pointed to the open front door and said that it never closes, even at night. “They need security in every building,” he said.

Bed-Stuy Community Searching for Answers After 2-year-old Boy’s Murder

By Yolanne Almanzar

The man in the green shirt was frantically searching for his son’s body Sunday. His red-rimmed eyes welled with tears as he asked for directions to the hospital.

“We don’t have time for this,” said Ameen Foster to his brother who was talking to reporters about Aiyden Davis, the two-year old who was beaten to death this past Friday.  They disappeared around the corner to Interfaith Medical Center.

Just two nights ago, the boy was rushed there after police responded to a 911 call of assault at 41 Kingston Ave. and found him unconscious. He was pronounced dead at the hospital.

His mother, Teresa Foster, 27, was charged with assault, criminal possession of a weapon and endangering the welfare of a child. Her boyfriend, Reginald Williams, 31, who was babysitting the child at the time of his death, was charged with second-degree murder. Both are waiting arraignment.

A spokeswoman for the medical examiner’s office said the cause of death was “blunt impact injuries of the head, torso and extremities with liver laceration and internal bleeding.”

The next night, Norvella Jones, 58, sat on an iron bench across the street from the 79th precinct on Saturday night waiting for answers.

“I want to see what these people look like,” she said.

Curious neighbors called out to Jones, who is known in the neighborhood as “Grandma,” and asked her about all the television vans and news reporters. Their reaction upon hearing the news of Aiyden’s death was always the same — shock followed quickly by sadness. Jones’ mood was one of outrage.

“They would’ve had to take me away for murdering him,” she said of Williams. “How can someone do that to a baby?”

Meanwhile, Foster’s next-door neighbor, Nikcole Palmer, 34, was asking the same question. She described Foster as a decent woman who kept her son well groomed.  Williams, she said, was possessive and irritable around the boy.

“He didn’t look like the kind of dude you would want to date,” Palmer said.

Palmer took a phone call. When she hung up, she said her boyfriend was warning her about speaking out.  In a neighborhood she described as getting too dangerous, she looked at her two daughters and said she felt it was her responsibility to speak up.

“I have to speak. Only real mothers and fathers can help these children,” she said.

Back at the precinct house, Jones seemed to be thinking much the same thing. She talked about the case of Marchella Pierce, a 4-year-old girl who was found weighing 18 pounds at the time of her death. Her mother, Carlotta Brett-Pierce, has been charged with beating the child and could face murder charges.

Her voice softened. Tragedies like these, she said, seem to be happening more frequently. By Monday, she added, little Aiyden might well be forgotten.

“It’s so sad,” she said. “He could’ve been the next president.”

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