A trailblazing Harlem bodega proprietor was fatally shot when she ran out of her condo constructing to examine on her grandson after she heard gunfire, neighbors and sources mentioned Wednesday.
Excenia Mette, 61, bought caught within the crossfire of two males taking pictures at one another close to her constructing at West 113th Avenue and Lenox Avenue Tuesday evening and took a bullet within the head, police sources mentioned.
After the gun battle ended, neighbors who had huddled indoors for security got here again outdoors to see Mette unresponsive on the bottom, surrounded by paramedics and her grief-stricken members of the family.
“Her grandson was screaming, ‘Grandma! Grandma!’” mentioned Nana, 28, a neighbor.
“The bullets weren’t alleged to be for her. Her instincts kicked in – your grandson’s on the market, your niece is on the market, adrenaline kicked in. She had to ensure they have been OK.”
Medics rushed Mette to Mount Sinai Morningside, the place medical doctors pronounced her useless, police mentioned.
Cops discovered one of many alleged perps — recognized as Darious Smith, 23 — on the bloody taking pictures scene with a gunshot wound to his left foot, sources mentioned.
Smith was taken into custody and transported to the identical hospital as Mette in steady situation, the sources mentioned. It remained unclear Wednesday afternoon if he was the one who shot Mette.
The opposite, still-at-large alleged gunman hasn’t been recognized, sources mentioned.
A firearm and eight shell casings have been discovered on the scene, based on the sources.
Smith’s prison file features a June 2024 theft during which he allegedly swiped e-bike batteries and slashed an excellent Samaritan who tried to cease him, based on sources.
Courtroom data present he’s scheduled to face trial on theft and assault expenses beginning Might 7.
Neighbors described Mette as a neighborhood fixture and exceptionally candy girl. who labored as a cook dinner at 67 Deli Corp on the identical block the place she lived.
Mette was also referred to as a pioneer in New York Metropolis’s panorama of bodegas and deli. She opened Momma Zee’s Meals to Plez Deli in 1987, changing into the primary woman- and black-owned bodega within the metropolis.
The bodega fell on laborious occasions through the coronavirus pandemic and finally closed, regardless of a GoFundMe and help from AriZona Iced Tea.
“She was part of the group, at all times there whenever you wanted her, a confidante, an excellent cook dinner,” neighbor Sara Lee, 41, instructed The Submit. “She was simply an superior girl, and for her to die at 61 years outdated to gun violence is horrible.
“This might have occurred to any considered one of us. When is it going to cease?”
One other neighbor, Marella Acevedeo Cruz, 27, mentioned Mette had at all times been candy to her kids. Simply two days in the past, the kindly Mette introduced Cruz’s children toys.
“It’s simply her being her, simply so candy, asking my children which of them they appreciated,” Cruz mentioned. “It’s not honest for us and our youngsters to see this tragedy. What if my children go into the shop in search of her? What am I going to inform them?”
— Further reporting by Emily Crane and Amanda Woods
