Stabbed by neighbor on visit to talk about bully son: cops
A DOTING MOM trying to protect her son from a bully in their Brooklyn building was fatally stabbed by the unhinged mother of the teen tormenting her child, heartbroken relatives said Thursday.
Shymeka Tart, 31, knocked on her upstairs neighbor’s door with the best of intentions, hoping to find a peaceful end to the beef between their sons.
Tart’s attempt to quash the conflict cost her her life.
The mother of three took her 15-year-old son Denzell with her as she knocked on Latrisha Moore’s seventh-floor door in the NYCHA-run Carey Gardens Houses near W. 20th St. in Coney Island on Wednesday night.
“Shymeka went to talk to (Moore) before she went to take out an order of protection on her son,” family friend Linda Hatcher said.
Tart, who lived on the fifth floor of the building, showed up at Moore’s door about 9:30 p.m.
A witness told police the pair spoke and initially agreed to go to the 60th Precinct together to settle the disagreement between their children.
But when Moore went back inside to change clothes, her son confronted Denzell, sparking a new fight.
As Tart tried to break up the tussling teens, Moore burst out of her apartment, knife in hand, and stabbed her, a witness told police.
One neighbor saw the gruesome aftermath as medics rushed Tart out of the building and headed for Coney Island Hospital, where she died.
“They were taking her out on the stretcher,” said the tenant, who asked not to be named. “There was blood everywhere.”
Tart’s mother, Isadora Tart, said she is flying in from Georgia to take care of Denzell and his two little sisters — ages 11 and 4.
“I’m not doing well. I’m just hanging on God’s strength because I don’t have any,” she told the Daily News.
Her kind-hearted daughter, who was attending culinary school, would seek out a peaceful resolution to any problem, she said.
“Knowing Shymeka, the way she was raised, she would try to handle everything herself,” her mother said. “You try to be neighborly, you talk to the parents. I know that’s how I raised her.”
Moore, 41, who remained at the scene, was taken into custody. No charges were filed against her as of Thursday evening.
Dried blood and NYPD crime scene tape littered the seventhfloor hallway outside her door on Thursday, where neighbors described a hotheaded homebody who had gotten into other building battles.
“Since she moved here, she hasn’t gotten along with anybody,” said neighbor Ana Quijano, 61, who lives next door. “Every time she starts fighting, I go to my room and turn off the lights, just in case something bigger happens. She has a bad temper. She wasn’t a good neighbor.”
More than a year ago, Moore told the Housing Authority management office at the Carey Gardens Houses that she had a “mental health disability issue,” and NYCHA — following protocol – referred her to a mental health-related social services provider, officials said.
Moore apparently became convinced in 2015 that someone was sneaking into her apartment to break her refrigerator, and twice she moved the appliance into the hallway and demanded a new one.
It’s not clear whether Moore followed up and contacted a provider, but NYCHA officials noted she had no disciplinary issues or police record that they were aware of.
On Oct. 3, a neighbor who was in the NYCHA management office to complete an annual tenant renewal form mentioned to a staffer that she and Moore recently had a verbal confrontation.
The neighbor did not ask NYCHA to follow up with Moore.
Another tenant said Moore was known for her temper. “One day there was stuff in front of my door. I knew it was (Moore’s) stuff so I knocked on her door to ask her why she left it there,” she said. “She started flipping out. Another time I was coming home and she was butt naked with a hammer right there around the corner.
“She had a lot of problems," the neighbor added.