Community

From a block away, the balloons, music and crowd made it look like a birthday party in a Mott Haven park.

But, up close, a painful reality emerged.

Family, friends and neighbors filled the Saw Mill Playground on 139th Street and Brook Avenue Wednesday to mourn the death of 10-year-old Naiesha Pearson.

Naiesha was killed Monday night at a Labor Day barbecue in the park, after a gunmen opened fire, targeting a man with whom he had a long-running dispute. A single stray bullet struck the young girl in the chest, killing her almost immediately.

Two days after the shooting, Naiesha’s family and many friends and neighbors have turned the park into an outdoor wake, where photographs, stuffed animals, flowers and hundreds of balloons and candles memorialize a life cut short. Family members said they will keep vigil at the site until they bury the girl’s body within the next couple of days.

“This park is where she was raised,” said Naiesha’s father, Jose Cintron, 30. “I’m going to make sure she lives right here.”

Cintron, who is of Puerto Rican descent, grew up in the South Bronx and Naiesha was the family’s third generation to live in the neighborhood.

“She was loved,” said Cintron, who has a heart-shaped tattoo on his chest inscribed with “Naiesha” and the names of two of her siblings.

“Everywhere she walked, they know who she was,” he added.

And, despite her death, Cintron hopes to keep it that way. He would like to have the park renamed in her honor, as well as to start a scholarship fund in Naiehsa’s name.

Cintron said he hoped to help someone go to college. “I can’t do it for my daughter now,” he said. “So I want to do it for other kids.”

Much of Mott Haven seemed to mourn the loss of Naiesha. Some residents said the tragedy had brought their tight-knit community even closer together.

Residents filled the Thessalonica Christian Church on St. Ann’s Avenue Tuesday for a memorial service. The church, which holds 300 people, was filled to capacity, Naiesha’s cousin Magdaliz Vasquez said. The crowd spilled into the street, according to Vasquez.

Several blocks away from the shooting, at the corner of 141st Street and Beekman Avenue, residents of the Diego Beekman housing project, where the girl lived, set up another memorial. A portrait of Naiesha, along with dolls, candy, and a container with dollar bills and change, honored the slain child.

“She didn’t get to experience anything,” said La-ohn Lewis, Diego Beekman resident, standing next to the makeshift memorial. “She was just a baby.”

As relatives at Saw Mill Playground reminisced about Naiesha, they described her love of life.

“To be with the kids, that was her joy,” Cintron said, referring to Naiesha’s siblings. Cintron has four children, who range in age from 3 months to 11 years.

“She cooked, she cleaned,” he said. “She used to take care of our kids.”

One relative said Naiesha was especially fond of music. “She had so many favorites,” said Yesenia Reyes, Naiesha’s aunt, adding that her niece particularly liked singer Mariah Carey.

Victor Soto Jr., who grow up with Cintron, said he would remember Naiesha for one thing: “Her smile.”

One memory that resonated in the park was how happy and thankful Naiesha had been just a week earlier when she won a bike at a Thessalonica Church raffle.

“God rewarded her with a bike,” said Vazquez, her cousin, “Then he blessed her and gave her wings.”

In the moments following the shooting, the yellow bike was stolen and has yet to be recovered, Vasquez added.

The intended target of the shooting, Leonardo Deanza, 19, was hospitalized but likely to survive despite being struck five times. Police said they have one suspect in custody, Rene Bonilla, 20, with charges pending.

While relatives and friends gathered in the park and onlookers watched across the street, neighborhood life seemed to be resuming. One driver in a white sedan spun his wheels, creating an ear-splitting squeal and filling the street with smoke from the burned rubber.

And just 20 feet from the park, a boy played with a plastic toy shotgun. He aimed it at a friend and warned, “You don’t want to get shot.”

One person’s life, though, was still far from normal. Missing from the gathering was Naiesha’s mother. Her task for the afternoon, relatives said, was choosing a coffin for her 10 year old.