Man out on bail after being wounded in fatal Brooklyn gun battle is shot to death near Yankee Stadium, mom ‘can’t make any sense of it’
The mother couldn’t make sense of it all.
The son of hers lauded by family and co-workers as an uplifting, caring breath of fresh air was the same man cops said was fatally shot in a Bronx park last week — eight months after being wounded during a shootout in Brooklyn.
Malik Bright, 22, out on bail for his alleged role in the Brooklyn shooting, died two days after he was shot in the head May 11 during a confrontation in a park near Yankee Stadium, police said.
There have been no arrests.
“He was a very respectful young man,” said Bright’s mom, Rosella Bright, 52. “I can’t make any sense of it.”
The mother said her son had just finished a shift at his job when he got an urgent call from his girlfriend.
“He had just gotten off of work and she called him to the park saying she was having a fight with someone,” she said.
Cops said Bright clashed with a group of young men near the chess tables by the entrance of Mullaly Park about 6:45 p.m. A witness said Bright threatened to use a gun on his rivals before he was fatally shot.
Bright was shot twice in the back of the head and rushed to Lincoln Hospital, where he died two days later, cops said.
“They called me at work at 9, 10 o’clock,” the mother recounted. “I said,’ ‘What?’ I just called my account manager and said, ‘I’ve got to go.’ “
“He was caring. He was my only son,” she said.
The mother said Bright was the father of 3-year-old and 5-month-old sons, and that Bright’s organs would be donated.
Bright had survived a Brooklyn shooting last year in September. Cops said Bright was in Bedford-Stuyvesant with Tysheem Ceruti, 27, when gunman Nicholas Seabrook allegedly opened fire on Putnam Ave. near Broadway about 12:30 a.m. Sept. 7. Ceruti died from gunshot wounds to his groin, arm and chest.
Bright was struck in the elbow and leg but survived. He pulled his own weapon and fired back at Seabrook but didn’t hit him, according to cops.
Cops arrested Seabrook on Jan. 6 — four months after the murder — and charged him with murder and weapons possession.
Bright was arrested the same day, charged with gun possession and reckless endangerment for shooting back at Seabrook, cops said. He was due back in court on the charges next week.
Despite his violent history— and death — co-workers at the Financial District where Bright worked described him as an upbeat team member who lived up to his name.
“His energy, aura and everything was just uplifting,” said Amani Simmons, 22. “Everybody got an individual good morning. He was always that person that if you were down, he’d lift you up. He was very funny. He was always cheery and smiling. He was a very kind soul. The way that he went out was not supposed to be.”
The restaurant’s financial director, Yunha Moh, 32, set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for Bright’s funeral.
“He came in everyday smiling,” Moh said. “When I’d see him I’d get a little energized. That’s the biggest impression he made on me.”
