Household and mates of beloved Harlem bodega proprietor and grandmother — fatally shot in a hail of bullets meant for another person — marched to the location of her loss of life Saturday, chanting “Say her name, Momma Zee” and remembering her because the “Mayor of Harlem.”
About 30 marchers walked from 145th Road and Malcolm X Boulevard all the way down to West 113th Road, inserting a white wreath and lighting candles exterior of Excenia Mette’s constructing earlier than praying, singing and talking with love concerning the sufferer.
“My grandmother should be here,” mentioned heartbroken grandson Jarian Jordan Jr., 24. “We have to stop the senseless gun violence.”
Mette, 61, was shot exterior her constructing when a bullet supposed for another person struck her within the head.
“This pain is like no pain I’ve ever felt in my life,” Jordan mentioned.
The occasion began farther uptown at Al Sharpton’s Nationwide Motion Community. Sharpton and his granddaughter joined the marchers.
A detailed buddy and coworker of Mette, Stacey Moyler, spoke on the vigil and remembered calling her the “Mayor of Harlem.”
“Let me tell you about this boss, because this woman is a boss,” Moyler mentioned.
“I remember we were driving in my car up Seventh Avenue, and we stopped at the light and then somebody screamed, ‘Momma Zee.’ I said, ‘Girl, you the mayor of Harlem?’ And then we’re driving and she’s waving, we stop at the next light, “Momma Zee, call me,” I mentioned, ‘You’re the mayor of Harlem.’”
Darious Smith, 23, was arrested in reference to the deadly taking pictures.
Smith was believed to have exchanged pictures with the still-at-large gunman whose stray bullet hit Mette within the head as she went exterior to test on her grandson, police sources mentioned.
Smith lived close to 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 Eighties.
“She should be alive today,” Ashley Sharpton mentioned of Mette. “She should be alive to tell her own story. She came outside looking for her grandson who is standing here with us today. … She didn’t deserve this.”
“Momma Zee was special to all of us,” Al Sharpton mentioned.
“She would feed the people of this neighborhood,” he mentioned. “Her sister mentioned the day of the rally, that she in all probability fed and clothed the those who ended up taking pictures her.
“Let us use this as a wake up call. We’ve got to stop this gun violence, in Momma Zee’s name.”
