Fatal Shooting Robs a Neighborhood of a Longtime Friendly Face
The New York Times
Alejandro Ramirez was one of two men killed in Upper Manhattan on Father’s Day. A 16-year-old has been charged in the deaths.
He worked his shift at Pizza Palace in Manhattan’s Inwood neighborhood late Sunday. He baked pies, took orders and chatted with customers. At closing time, he bid his co-workers farewell and headed for his home in the Bronx, walking several blocks to the Bx12 bus stop, passing bright bodegas and clumps of litter on the way.
But the man, Alejandro Ramirez, never got to the stop. He made it only a few blocks before he was fatally shot in the chest.
Mr. Ramirez, 45, was one of two people killed in a shooting at West 207th Street and 10th Avenue around 11:40 p.m. on Father’s Day; another Bronx man, Michael James, 44, was fatally shot in the torso. A third victim, a 37-year old man, was wounded in the leg. A 16-year-old was arrested in the shootings, for which police have not given a motive.
The number of shootings across New York City has dropped compared with last year, but that was little consolation for a neighborhood shaken by the Father’s Day shooting, and for a city girding for summer’s traditional increase in gun violence.
Mr. Ramirez, remembered in social media posts as a friendly face, left a legacy as a kind soul. In the days after his death, memorials in his name sprang up around Inwood, prompting people to stop at the sight of his photo surrounded by candles.
“The pizza shop is home for a lot of us,” said Katherine Mota, who came to a vigil for Mr. Ramirez on Friday night that drew scores of mourners. “I lost a family member.”
