A hooligan whose reckless gunfight allegedly led to the tragic demise of beloved Harlem neighborhood pillar Excenia Mette was out on bail in a slashing case when the mindless capturing unfolded, The Submit has discovered.
Darious Smith, 23, pulled a white Tyvek swimsuit over his face as he was pushed in a wheelchair right into a Manhattan courthouse Thursday to face costs of tried homicide and felony possession of a firearm for Mette’s demise.
Sources mentioned Smith is believed to have exchanged pictures with the still-at-large gunman whose stray bullet hit Mette within the head as she selflessly rushed exterior to verify on her grandson Tuesday evening.
Smith was shot within the foot throughout the scuffle.
Manhattan Legal Court docket Choose Kacie Lally ordered Smith to be jailed with out bail — an end result he dodged the final time he stood accused of a violent crime.
“This is what’s making our job harder,” Mayor Eric Adams mentioned Thursday throughout an occasion about taking unlawful weapons off the streets.
“When you allow those who have recidivism, continuous violence in our city to continue to walk the streets,” he mentioned.
“Criminal justice system includes police, judiciary, and legislators. They all must be engaged on the same path.”
Data present Smith was arrested in June 2024 after he allegedly slashed two individuals with a field cutter on Lenox Avenue close to West 118th Road whereas he tried to steal e-bike batteries.
When he was arraigned on theft and assault costs, prosecutors in Manhattan District Lawyer Alvin Bragg’s workplace requested bail at $50,000 money or $150,000 bond, data present.
However Choose Michael Ryan set it at $10,000, which Smith posted — permitting him to stroll free forward of his scheduled Might trial, sources mentioned.
Smith lived only a block away from Mette’s former enterprise, Momma Zee’s Meals to Plez Deli, which was the primary black woman-owned bodega within the metropolis when she opened it within the Nineteen Eighties.
Family members and neighbors gathered Thursday at a makeshift shrine in entrance of Mette’s residence at West 113th Road and Lenox Avenue, the place she was shot.
They hung up a photograph of Mette, whom they affectionately knew as “Momma Zee” or “Zeenie,” frolicking on a seashore.
Neighbor Barbara Johnson, 66, mentioned she wasn’t shocked one of many shooters is an accused repeat offender.
“They need to do something for the youth, to keep them occupied, give them something to do, something to look forward to,” she mentioned.
“Idle hands is the Devil’s workshop.”
“No system devised to keep the people down will do anything to help us up, and that’s from the beginning, the first day of this country.”
Adams, chatting with PIX11 Wednesday evening, as an alternative blamed the felony justice system for permitting Smith to be out on the streets.
“Public safety is a criminal justice apparatus that includes police, that includes judges, that includes lawmakers. The police are doing their job,” he mentioned.
“When you have a person with repeated violence, just last year, he was arrested for robbery, stabbing two people. Now he’s back on the street, involved in a shooting that took the life of an innocent woman. We have to have the other parts of the criminal justice system do their job.”
Metropolis Councilman Yusef Salaam (D-Manhattan) — who represents the Harlem neighborhood and chairs the council’s public security committee — issued a heartfelt remembrance of Mette, and blamed the violence partly on systemic failures.
“Harlem is in mourning for Mette, who fed the community, stood beside the youth and gave back through service with leaders such as the Rev. Al Sharpton and the artist Jim Jones,” Salaam mentioned.
“This act of violence — the result of reckless and deadly conflict on our streets — is yet another painful reminder that we are in the midst of a public safety crisis,” he mentioned.
“It is a crisis rooted not just in crime, but in a long history of disinvestment, lack of opportunity, and the systemic failures that continue to plague our neighborhoods.”
Different lawmakers representing the realm targeted on gun prevention efforts, corresponding to Assemblyman Jordan Wright (D-Manhattan), who known as it a reminder “of how imperative it is to get guns off of our streets.”
“We have to continue fighting hard together to find solutions,” added state Sen. Cordelle Cleare (D-Manhattan) in a press release.
“Now is not the time for resources to be cut.”
Video footage confirmed a person matching Smith’s description journey a scooter towards a gaggle of individuals, pull a gun and fireplace two pictures, courtroom papers state.
Police consider the second suspect then grabbed a gun of his personal and fired off the pictures that wounded Smith and killed Mette, law-enforcement sources have mentioned.
Smith allegedly rode the scooter alongside West 113th Road earlier than he collided with an NYPD cop who tried to cease him, the courtroom docs state.
He ran away onto St. Nicholas Avenue, the place he threw a 9-millimeter pistol to the sidewalk, the papers state.
Sources mentioned eight bullets had been discovered on the deadly capturing scene.
Smith’s high-profile felony protection legal professional Daybreak Florio claimed in courtroom that 4 cops beat him with a weapons and a Taser, along with his gunshot wound.
She requested for medical consideration for Smith and griped that him being linked with the capturing is inflicting issues for his family members.
“My client’s family who lives in the neighborhood is getting threatened,” she mentioned.
— Extra reporting by Vaughn Golden and Hannah Fierick
