WHY’D THEY KILL MY SON?
B’klyn ma saw alert on app, stunned to learn awful truth
A devoted Brooklyn mom, after promising to make her 17-year-old son the homemade pepperoni pizza he craved, thought nothing of an alert on her phone that a teen had been shot nearby.
But that boy turned out to be Juliana Gopie-Sanon’s son, who died in a hail of bullets that wounded two of his friends just three blocks from his family’s Canarsie home.
“I just want to know why,” Gopie-Sanon told the Daily News Sunday. “What did he really do to deserve this? My baby — I only have one son.”
The 49-year-old mother promised Bryan Sanon on Friday night she would make one of the teen’s favorite dishes for dinner the next day.
“He begged me to make homemade pizza for him. He loved pepperoni pizza. And he said ‘Mom, when are you going to make me pizza?’ I said Saturday.
“So when he came home Friday he said, ‘Mommy, pizza tomorrow?’ I said yes. He said, ‘Good.’ Just like that!”
But after Bryan left Saturday morning to go for a walk with friends, a gunman hopped out of the back seat of a silver sedan and opened fire on the group on E. 82nd St. near Farragut Road just after 10 a.m. He died at the scene.
His mother was at a doctor’s appointment when she saw an alert on Citizen –– an app that sends out notifications of reports of nearby crimes — that a teen had been shot near her home. Still she never imagined it could be her son.
“I was coming home with the intention to make the pizza,” Gopie-Sanon said. “I didn’t expect that I would come back and not see my son.”
On her way home she called her husband to ask if he needed anything from their local dollar store. He urged her to come straight home, wanting to tell her the terrible news in person.
After absorbing the blow, she visited the crime scene to light some candles — and found Bryan’s body still there awaiting removal.
“The last thing I saw of my son is him lying down in a crouched position covered in the white blanket on the road. I just wanted to hold him,” she said. “I just wish to see my son right now. I just want to see him and hold him.”
Visiting the scene brought a small measure of relief when she was approached by a witness who called 911.
“She said to me that if it would help us, he didn’t die alone,” Gopie-Sanon said through tears.
“She said one of his friends that got shot came back and stayed with him, so he didn’t die alone. Even though the situation is what it is, it gave me a little comfort to know that he just wasn’t alone. And at least who he was with did not abandon him.”
Bryan enjoyed video games, music and, most of all, friends.
“His friends were his life,” she said. “He would go out and come home every day.”
Until Saturday.
In the barrage of bullets that killed Bryan, a 20-year-old friend was shot in the face and a 19-yearold pal was grazed in both legs, police said. Both were being treated at Brookdale University Hospital and expected to recover.
Gopie-Sanon, who suffers a number of medical issues, remembered how her son would tend to her if she was too weak to get out of bed.
“What I will miss most about him, when I ask him to make me a cup of tea,” she said.
“He would fuss about it, but he would get up and make it and bring it and put it on my bed.”
Her daughter, Bryan’s 23-yearold sister, Briana Gopie-Sanon, was too overcome to speak at length Sunday.
“He didn’t deserve that,” the sister said.
“I just want him back.” Cops are stills searching for the shooter and driver, who sped off together in the silver sedan.
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.