‘Bad day’ slay susp fesses
Held in shoot after 2 mos. on lam; tells cops vic too noisy
A Bronx murder suspect confessed that his bad day turned into his victim’s last day.
Jabal Gordon, after more than two months on the run, was busted Wednesday at a Nyack motel on charges of manslaughter, attempted murder and gun possession in the July 30 slaying of Keith Holden, police said Thursday.
The 40-year-old suspect, taken into custody at a Super 8 motel on Route 59, told police he was already agitated after a “bad day” and became further angered when the 54-year-old Holden began making a racket prior to their lethal predawn confrontation on E. Gun Hill Road near Young Ave. in the Bronx.
“Having a bad day?” asked the victim’s niece, Turquoise Martin. “How about not bringing a gun to a party? It really is senseless.”
Martin, in a Facebook post, recounted how her fun-loving uncle was attending a get-together in the Bronx when he was gunned down — with his body dragged outside and left on the street. Cops said Holden, shot in the face and rushed to Jacobi Hospital, died nine days later.
“My uncle was the first celebrity I ever met,” Martin recalled to the Daily News. “When I was a little girl, watching ‘Showtime at The Apollo,’ I saw him dancing up there. Always dressed really nice. Always stylish.”
He worked for 30 years at Billy Jeans Hair Salon in Harlem and became a staple among the city’s reggae dancehall community, his relatives said.
“That’s how everyone knew him, as Dancing Keith,” cousin Karen Holden told The News. “He’s been dancing since he was little. He just loved to dance.”
Holden was elated by the arrest of a suspect, and offered fond recollections of their beloved relative — the youngest of seven children in a tight-knit family.
“Oh my God, I’m so happy I could cry,” she said. “We all grew up together. He never bothered nobody. All he wanted to do was have a good time and enjoy his life . ... We’re still hurting. Everyone that found out today was like, ‘He got caught? Good.’ ”
Once in custody, Gordon — who lives in upstate Chester — told police that the din made by Holden around 4:50 a.m. this past summer set off his homicidal response, cops said.
Holden was found lying faceup with a gunshot wound to his face when police arrived, with Gordon disappearing for more than two months as cops pursued the suspect.
Family members remembered their lost loved one with both a funeral and a posthumous birthday party. Holden said her uncle was buried alongside his mother and sister in Rosehill Cemetery in Linden, N.J.
Niece Ebony Anderson, who was raised by her uncle, recalled the huge turnout on the day when Holden would have turned 55.
“It was a big celebration, really nice, because he partied every year on his birthday,” she said. “And we wanted to keep the tradition going.”