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Police Search For Man Who Mistakenly Killed Friend
By
Ben Yakas
Published Jan 5, 2011
Modified Jan 5, 2011
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Jan 5, 2011
Modified Jan 5, 2011
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Staten Island police are searching for the young man who fatally shot his best friend—by mistake—during a street fight gone sour. Police believe that Drew B. Casseus was backing up his friend Jonathan "Beanz" Vazquez in a street fight with an unidentified parolee in Port Richmond last week. Now, Vazquez's mother is worried about Casseus facing street justice for the mistake: “It isn’t like any of us would hurt him, but there are people on the street that are very angry. I’m just praying that he turns himself in. I don’t want to see any more tragedy. An eye for an eye doesn’t work. I don’t want him to take his own life and I don’t want anyone to take his life,” mother Luna Suarez told SILive.
According to police, Casseus shot the 21-year-old parolee in the leg during the confrontation, but one of his bullets hit his friend in the head, killing him. Casseus, 19, has gone missing since the shooting. Suarez said the last time she saw him was just after the incident, before she knew what had happened: “I saw him huffing and puffing, ‘Everything’s crazy out there.’ He was dry-heaving and gagging out my back door.” Casseus and Vasquez had been best friends since they were very young; Casseus had even lived with Vazquez’s family for three years, with the two sharing each other’s clothing. Casseus also has a tattoo which depicts the faces of himself, Vazquez and a third man, decorated with the writing, “The Three Monkeys." Casseus was on probation for a petty larceny charge at the time of the incident; and Vazquez had just completed his GED, and was said to be on the straight and narrow before the tragic shooting.
Tagged
drew casseus
jonathan vazquez
shooting
staten island
street fight
Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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