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Harlem Teen Killed Outside Peaceful Valley Garden
By
Ben Yakas
Published Jun 15, 2011
Modified Jun 15, 2011
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Jun 15, 2011
Modified Jun 15, 2011
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A 15-year-old Harlem teen was shot and killed in front of his neighborhood community garden yesterday. Juan Otero was shot in the torso in front of Peaceful Valley community garden while on the way to a corner store at East 117th Street and Madison Avenue around 9:30 p.m. His mother Jessica Montilla tells the News, "I came home and the streets are taped off and and this feeling just hit me. I ran from Park Ave. This cop stopped me and I'm like, 'No!' and I pushed the cop out of the way. My brother—when I saw my brother—I knew."
No arrests have been made, but witness Carlos Vega said he heard five shots and then spotted three people dash down the street. Police have not identified a motive yet, but Otero had been shot in the hand last year, and had a prior arrest for robbery. His mother said he had fallen in with a bad crowd, but he wasn't a troublemaker, and she was trying to set him straight—nevertheless, gang violence plagues the neighborhood. "There is a war. If you live here on Madison, you can't walk on Lexington. It's another gang. He got jumped a couple of times," she said.
A makeshift memorial with fifteen candles was put up for the 10th grader where he was shot. Montilla said her biggest fear, that her child would be killed, had come true, and warned other parents: “He’s not the first and he won’t be the last to die this summer, believe me, the streets is hot. There’s going to be a lot more deaths and a lot of mothers feeling the way I feel; I wish them all the best, no one deserves this.”
Tagged
harlem
juan otero
manhattan
peaceful valley
shooting
teen
Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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