‘Way too soon ... Love you kid’: Another candlelit memorial in the Bronx, for slain teen who dreamed of being an engineer
Another candlelit memorial set up after another pointless gun murder in the Bronx told how much Tony Boyd’s family and friends loved him.
“Wish you were here. This is way too soon,” one mourner wrote beside a picture of Tony. “Love you kid.”
“Tony Tony Tone. Love you my boy!” another message reads.
Tony, 17, was killed around 11:30 p.m. May 6 by someone caught on video firing several rounds into Gouverneur Playground in Claremont Village.
The teen died from wounds to his chest and back.
His mother, Veronica Thiam, 52, had a bad feeling hours before the shooting when Tony’s friends lied about where he was.
Thiam said her son’s pals — gathered in Tony’s bedroom — said he’d gone out to buy a facemask around 6 p.m.
“I looked at them like they were crazy. Tony is not going to a store to buy a mask. I have masks in my room,” she said.
When she pushed them for an answer, they said he was out playing a game of manhunt, a version of tag.
“This doesn’t feel right to me,” Thiam remembers thinking.
“I had a feeling something was wrong. Something was telling me, ‘Go down to the block,’” Thiam said.
Hours later, when Thiam heard gunshots, she began calling her son incessantly, but he didn’t pick up.
Soon after, detectives arrived at her front doorstep with his photo. She called out: “That’s my baby!”
“I panicked. I panicked. I went crazy,” Thiam said.
On Friday, more than a week after the slaying, the candlelit memorial was still outside the family home where Boyd lived with his mother, sister and two brothers.
Monica Savage, 22, recalled the horrifying moment she learned from another brother that Tony had been killed.
“When I first heard about what happened, I was shocked. I couldn’t believe it, but my brother kept repeating it. I had 20 miss calls from other people, so I confirmed it,” she said.
“I literally lost my mind.”
Savage said Tony made an impact on people through his kindness and generous nature. She described him as funny, outgoing, energetic, humble and very smart.
Tony was was passionate about cars and had recently asked his sister for help finding a job so their mom could stop working.
“He wanted to become an engineer,” added Savage. “Everybody loved him. He was respected.”
The victim’s 18-year-old brother, Rowdy Mula, said he was in a state of panic upon learning of the shooting.
“We did not know what to do,” he said. “He was my brother. He was my family.”
The victim’s godmother, Vanessa Diaz, who lives in the building, said she was still trying to process young Boyd’s death.
“He was a nice kid. I was his babysitter when he was 1 year old. It hurts me so much,” she said.
Investigators questioned a person of interest shortly after the shooting, but as of Friday no one had been arrested or charged.
Also wounded in the incident was a 24-year-old woman who walked into Lincoln Hospital two miles away with a gunshot wound to her arm.
Anyone with information about the shooting or the suspect should call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. Calls can be anonymous.
