Friends and neighbors gathered on a Mott Haven sidewalk to pray for slain Aisha Santiago and her distraught mother on Wednesday, September 30.
Santiago was headed home from a Laundromat on the afternoon of Tuesday, September 22 when two groups of men started a firestorm. The 25-year old pushed her nine-year old son to safety but was hit by a stray bullet. She collapsed and died in front of her apartment building on E. 146th Street.
“I raised her in that building,” mother Yvette Montanez said. “I remember when this was a family neighborhood. I don’t know what happened.”
Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. addressed a solemn crowd.
“We’re here pray peacefully,” Diaz Jr. said. “But we’re angry.”
Senseless murders damage efforts to resuscitate the Bronx, Diaz Jr. said. The scene was reminiscent of Mott Haven tragedies that no longer grab headlines but push members of New Yorkers Against Gun Violence to fight. Gloria Cruz lost her niece, Naiesha Pearson, to a stray bullet on E. 139th Street in 2005.
“We want to bring dignity to a sad issue,” Cruz said. “There needs to be a change in the neighborhood and it needs to start with us.”
Luz Rodriguez, like Cruz a member of New Yorkers Against Gun Violence, grew up with Montanez.
“Bullets have no eyes,” she said. “Guns don’t kill, people do.”
Rodriguez embraced Montanez.
“You’re not alone,” she said.
Jose Diaz, 25, linked to Santiago’s death, was arraigned on Friday, October 1. Diaz missed 16-year old Robert Vargas and hit Santiago, prosecutors said. Vargas was arraigned for attempted murder. He hit a third man in the leg.
Mott Haven has witnessed a spate of gun-related crimes of late; the Police Department has transferred additional officers to the 40th Precinct. Some E. 146th Street neighbors are unsatisfied with the Police Department.
Santiago attended Evander Childs High School and hoped to pen a children’s book. She quit work to care for her son, Montanez said.
