A young couple found having been shot to death and burned beyond recognition in a car at a Bronx park were victims of a deadly gang war sparked by a stolen purse.
Nikki Huang and Jesse Parrilla, both 22, were gunned dead in a series of retaliatory shootings after Huang told her friends of how a rival crew mugged her last Sunday and stole her purse, law enforcement sources said.
Jesse was not part of the conflict between the rival Up the Hill and the Down the Hill crews, the sources said, but rather ended up getting caught in the crossfire while spending time with Huang.
One Manhattan cop said it looked as though the young man, a former basketball player, was in “the wrong place at the wrong time”.
“He has no criminal record. It looks like he was just hanging out with Nikki,” he told The New York Post..
Jesse’s mother Michelle Morales, who owned the car the pair was killed in, said her son knew Huang from middle school.
“He was a good-hearted person just helping a friend out with a ride,” she said. “I don’t think he was aware of anything. He had no idea what was going on because he would never put himself in a situation like that.
“I’m so angry and devastated and hurt that my son was taken away from me just like that. The last words he said to me when I was finally able to talk to him was, ‘I love you.'”
The pair’s bodies were found in the charred car around 4.30am on Monday at the Pelham/Split Rock Golf Course in the Bronx.
Detectives now suspect the tragic series of events that led to the young couple being shot to death and burned were set in motion after Huang, 23, was robbed near a housing project on the Lower East Side.
Law enforcement sources said her assailants were allegedly members of a local crew that called itself the Down the Hill Gang.
Huang, whose family owned a nail salon and a restaurant in the Lower East Side, had friends in the rival Up the Hill gang, who she complained to about the crime instead of going to the police.
Sources said the rivalry between the two gangs in Manhattan was so strong that they didn’t let the robbery of Huang, who lost cash and credit cards in addition to her purse, slide.
The payback began on Sunday with a series of shootings, sources said.
A 39-year-old reputed member of the Down the Hill gang, Brandon Atkinson, was gunned down at 11.18pm in Alphabet City, police said. He was rushed to Bellvue Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Payback from the Down the Hill gang came about quickly; with two Up the Hill members being shot and wounded less than an hour later.
Huang was next in their firing line, cops believing that Down the Hill members targeted her for kidnapping on Sunday night while she was hanging out with Parrilla.
Both Parrilla and Huang was grabbed by the gang and held down, as Down the Hill members tried to get further revenge by forcing the young woman at gunpoint to betray a friend of hers.
They ordered her to call Maurice Sullivan, 27, and get him to leave his house in Queens so he could be ambushed. Maurice was taking out his trash in Maspeth when a dark coloured vehicle pulled up around 2:20 a.m. and shot him in the left side of the face.
Sometime after she called Sullivan, Huang and Parrilla were driven to a quiet, leafy street near the Bronx golf course, where they were shot and the car set ablaze.
Huang had worked at a Chinese restaurant in the Lower East Side called La Lung Kitchen, which was owned by her mother. The family also owned a nearby nail salon, called Nails by Nikki.
Dean Ford, a 25-year-old former classmate of Huang’s at PS 110 and Tompkins Square Middle School, said she was a “tough, strong” girl and a loyal friend.
And a neighbour of Parrilla’s family said his mother was “screaming and crying” after getting the news of her only son’s death on Monday.
“She couldn’t stand,” Choudhury said. “Her relatives had to hold her up.”
Parrilla’s mother said her son had hoped to be a business owner after his hopes for an NBA career seemed less likely.
“I’m trying to hold on,” Morales said. “I got a call from the police regarding my car. He called and I confirmed the car. I said the driver is my son.
“I found out he had passed from the detective,” she said. “I screamed.
“I want justice for my son,” she added. “I want whoever did this to come forward.”
