A beloved grandmother and community figure was gunned down on a Harlem street when she went to investigate the source of a commotion outside her Lenox Avenue apartment and was caught in the crossfire between two men.
A memorial of candles and flowers was growing outside the home of the victim, Excenia Mette, 61, who was one of the first Black women to own a bodega in Harlem, in the 1980s.
A suspect identified as Ricky Shelby, 23, of the Bronx, turned himself in to the 28th Precinct on April 28 and was charged with murder in the second degree, attempted murder, and criminal possession of a weapon.
Friends and family on April 26 remembered Mette as “the Mayor of Harlem” and placed a white wreath outside her home after walking from West 145th Street and Malcolm X Boulevard to West 113th Street and Lenox Avenue. Mette was a member of the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, and he led the marchers to the memorial.
“My grandmother should be here,” grandson Jarian Jordan Jr., 24, was quoted as saying in the NY Post. “We have to stop the senseless gun violence.”
On the night of the shooting on April 22, around 10:30pm Mette was in Tamara’s Beauty Bar on the ground floor of her apartment building at 61 Lenox Ave. when she heard shots fired.
One of the men in a scuffle outside the apartment building where Mette lived was shot in the foot. Both Mette and the man, later identified as Darious Smith, were brought to Mount Sinai Morningside, but Mette could not be saved.
Smith was arrested on April 24 two days after the shooting and charged with attempted murder and criminal possession of a weapon, according to police.
The deadly night began unfolding around 10:29pm, when Smith rode a motorized scooter to 57 Lenox Ave., disembarked, and approached a group of people on foot. Prosecutors said Smith fired twice toward the group of people and failed to hit anyone, before fleeing on his scooter westbound on West 113th Street. There he was intercepted by officer Edwin Abrego and his partners from the 28th Precinct, who had rushed to the scene after the “shots fired” report crackled over police radio. Smith was already wounded in the foot from a bullet allegedly fired by Shelby. A stray bullet from Shelby’s gun is believed to be the one that killed Mette, police said.
Smith was eventually collared shortly after the incident, when he collided with officers while attemtping to flee on St. Nicholas Avenue. He was taken initially to Mount Sinai Morningside Hospital and was arrested two days later, on April 24, and remanded without bail.
Mette, who was known as “Zeenie” or “Momma Zee,” had opened a deli, Momma Zee’s Food to Plez, in the 1980s; it was forced to close during COVID. She was originally from Peoria, Ill. After her deli closed, she had worked as a cook at 67 Deli Corp. down the street from her apartment.
“My grandmother should be here. We have to stop the senseless gun violence.” — Jarian Jordan Jr., grandson of Excenia Mette, who was killed by a stray bullet.