The relative calm of the city came to an end early last night, as gunshots rang out on Mahogany Street and the Boulevard sometime around 6:30. By the time the shooter or shooters left the scene, two young men lay critically wounded.
The two victims were sitting in a green car near the Money Gram office that is at the corner of Central American Boulevard and Mahogany Street when they were shot in their heads. Identified as Akeem Gotoy, 19, and Dillon Bennett, 23, they were rushed to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital for treatment. Both men were shot in the back of their heads. Akeem was also shot in his lower back.
This morning police reported that both men were in a critical condition at the KHMH. And while hospital authorities are citing confidentiality reasons for not giving any information on the condition of Gotoy, Dillon Bennett, who had just turned 23, succumbed to his injuries early this morning.
According to the police, a tinted red Honda Civic pulled up beside the two men. One gunman got out of the Honda Civic and began firing at the two men, who were sitting in a parked green car. Police reported that they have found the Civic, a two door car with license plates C-26911, in the southside of the city, and they are looking for two suspects, who are known to them.
Family members told Amandala that Dillon Bennett was not involved in any gang. He worked as a contractor, his family said.
“He was just speaking to his cousin, Shakira, before he went outside. He was about three houses away from this house, sitting in a car that once belonged to a controversial police officer, Delmar Moguel. Earlier, he had gone to the police station to pick up the car,” the relative said.
Dillon’s mother, Bernadette Usher, 45, told Amandala that, “I saw my son this morning before I went to work. Every morning before I go to work, I would go downstairs and knock on his door, and tell him to be safe and be good. Practically every day I do this,” said Usher, who works as a domestic.
Dillon’s common-law wife, Marla Perez, 22, told Amandala that she was at her mother’s house on Fabers Road Extension when Dillon was shot. “My sister’s boyfriend told me about the shooting last night.”
Kenecia Velasquez, 30, Bennett’s sister, told our newspaper that, “He did not die because of anything that he did. He died because of being mixed up with dirty cops.”
Dillon Bennett leaves to mourn his mother, Bernadette Usher; his common-law wife, Marla Perez; his three-year-old daughter, Yanira Bennett; his two brothers, Anthony and Justin Bennett; his four sisters and a host of cousins and other relatives.
Funeral services will be announced later.