A pregnant Harlem woman was fatally shot in the head after her baby shower early Sunday trying to break up a fight between her ex-boyfriend and current lover, police and heartbroken relatives said.
Shanice Young, 31, was slain in front of her two children after leaving the shower at a catering hall near her home, witnesses and police said.
Advertisement“I helped her put her gifts in the car and I said, ‘I’ll see you tomorrow,’” her shocked father Thurman Young, 57, told the Daily News.
“She was going to have her baby in five days. She said ‘This baby is coming in five days, Daddy, get ready’. I said ‘I’ll be ready’. That’s the last thing she said to me.”
AdvertisementAdvertisementYoung was carrying presents from the shower into her apartment building on W. 128th St. near Frederick Douglass Blvd. when her ex showed up and confronted her boyfriend about 1:15 a.m., police and witnesses said.
[More New York] NYC mother of two found dead with slit throat inside Bronx apartment »“[The gunman] came in chasing the boyfriend,” said Jose Morales, 46, the super of her building. “They ran through here and out the other side and they ran downstairs.”
The two men ended up back on the street, where Young intervened, trying to make peace between the two men, according police. Her angry ex pumped a bullet into her head, police said.
Her two daughters, ages 15 and 6, watched in horror from the car as EMS rushed Young to Harlem Hospital, where she died.
[More New York] Three city employees busted — two for drunk driving — in 12-hour span: police »The shooter ran off and has not been caught. The News is not naming him because he has not been officially identified as a suspect by police.
“I just can’t sleep — I guess I’m in shock,” the victim’s father said Sunday afternoon. “The whole of Harlem is mourning right now.”
He and his daughter had just shared one of their happiest evenings ever together.
[More New York] Teen struck by livery cab crossing Bronx street fights for life: NYPD »“It was a beautiful night,” he said of the joy-filled baby shower. “Me and my daughter danced, father-daughter dance, and I cut the cake . . . It was packed. We had music, a lot of food, a lot of drinks.”
Young moved into the building where she was killed about three years ago to take care of her sick mother. Her mother went on to die of ovarian cancer about a year ago and Young had been raising her two younger siblings along with her own two daughters since then, friends said.
Meanwhile, Young’s relationship with her ex dissolved.
[More New York] Off-duty NYC correction officers shot during celebration at Queens bar: NYPD »“I’ve seen him a few times,” her father said of the ex. “He came over to the house. He was respectful.”
“She put him out because he was cheating on her,” he added. ”Then [he] does this because she had another boyfriend.”
Young had three orders of protection against her ex since their split, according to her dad.
“Shanice was scared to death of him,” he said.
Friends and neighbors remembered Young as someone always eager to help others.
“Shanice would give you anything”, her father said. “She was very generous.”
“She was there anytime of the day,” said a friend of the victim who spoke anonymously out of fear of the shooter. “If you needed a plate of food or a bottle of water, she was there. If you needed a coat or a sweater, she was there.”
[More New York] Badly decomposed body found on side of Bronx highway: NYPD »“She was just a beautiful person,” the building’s super said. “It’s so sad. I wish it would have never happened.”
AdvertisementAdvertisement Advertisement AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement