Month: June 2024

Last night, just before the close of business, a pair of men walked into a small shop in Fresh Pond Community.  They weren’t there to make a purchase.  Instead, they carried out a deadly home invasion during which they relieved a family of two thousand, three hundred dollars and various personal items.  Before leaving, they shot and killed an aspiring businessman who wanted nothing more than to become successful and take care of his family.  Tonight, they are grief stricken and police are no closer to making an arrest amid an ongoing investigation.  News Five’s Isani Cayetano reports.

 

Voice of: Sister-in-law of Deceased

“Usually my mother-in-law closes [the shop] at nine o’clock.  So they were just going about their regular day, just outside in the hammock talking, my sister-in-law, my mother-in-law, and they noticed that two guys were walking towards the shop, so they assumed that they were going to come buy.  When they noticed, they men came from the front door, went in through the shop and basically just came out by the verandah, somewhat like they know the layout of the house.”

 

Isani Cayetano, Reporting

A thirty-three-year-old businessman is dead and the armed men who stormed his family home in Fresh Pond on Monday night are still on the loose.  At gunpoint, Cruz Magana’s mother and sister told their attackers that they were alone inside the house.  He was in this hammock sometime around nine p.m., when a commotion inside the living room caught his attention.

 

Sister-in-law of Deceased

“Dat da when my brother-in-law mi like, mi di hear da commotion and get up from the hammock and dat da when ih look like di man dehn get jumpy and dehn seh, “A man deh ya.  So dat da when dehn come eena di house through di veranda door and dehn tell ahn, “Give mi di money.  And dehn mi done check like di shop, dehn mi gaan check it and ih mi got like lone lee chump change, my mother-in-law done mi put up di money.”

 

The surveillance camera inside the small grocery store tracked the pair’s movement as they rifled the register.  The men were intent on carrying out an aggravated burglary and wouldn’t leave until they got what they wanted.  Regrettably, the device would not capture any of the footage on record.  In the wake of the deadly incident is grief and a hardworking family that has been torn apart.

 

Sister-in-law

“My brother-in-law and my mother-in-law tell ahn, “You know di money deh eena di room.  Just tek di money and go.  But like before that, deh mi done tek things, right, like my sister-in-law’s bracelet and thing.  Dehn just literally gaan eena di room, tek di money, walk out and still shot ahn.  Three to four times dehn shot ahn.”

 

 

When Cruz quit his job at a call center, it was to pursue his dream of becoming an entrepreneur and provide for his family.  He was humble, diligent and was making progress at realizing that dream.

 

Sister-in-law

“He da mi wahn really good person, and really humble and thing and he worked really hard fi got ih lee business weh ih mi di build up.  I remember he mi get tired a call center one spell and then he mi tell we, ih seh, “ ah wah build wah business and unu wah watch me get big and I wah tek care ah all ah my family.”

 

Before then, his mother had been running the business for well over a decade and nothing like the harrowing ordeal that she experienced overnight had ever happened here.

 

Sister-in-law

“Three to four times dehn shot ahn and dat da cause like he mi di beg fi ih life like, you know, just tek di money, go.  Da just dat, right, but dehn still just shot ahn and tek di money and gaan.  Dehn tek di phone dehn, dehn tek wahn laptop and then dehn gone out back and dehn mu wahn shot my sister-in-law too, right.  I think one ah dehn done mi got ahn eena ih hand, she mi seh, but then she run, right,… she run cross ah di neighbor. My mother-in-law di go through it because da like, that da her first son and he da always di one weh deh ya with ahn, always di help ah how ih can.”

 

Isani Cayetano for News Five.