MOURNING AND ANGER
At rites for subway slay vic, cousin lashes city for death
The teary family of an innocent and beloved subway shooting victim gathered Tuesday to honor him in word and song at a Brooklyn funeral where his cousin demanded answers from the city for his death.
The casket holding Goldman Sachs researcher Daniel Enriquez, 48, arrived about 9:30 a.m. at Transfiguration Catholic Church in Williamsburg, accompanied by bagpipes and audible sobbing in a church filled with family, friends and Enriquez’s partner, Adam Pollack.
“Daniel was a very good man,” said his dad, Ruperto Enriquez, who flew in from Seattle to bid his son a final farewell. “He was the best. There aren’t words to describe him, his presence, his smile. He was a positive person, 100%.”
About 600 people filled the church for the sad sendoff, where the funeral Mass was conducted in Spanish as an homage to the victim’s Mexican heritage.
Daniel’s mother climbed into a waiting limo after the service, saying only she was “sad, really sad.” But niece Michelle Enriquez, addressing the media on the family’s behalf after the funeral, sounded an angrier tone.
“Our family is destroyed,” she said. “Our family is completely destroyed. We loved Danny very much and we are devastated how crime is just getting out of control in New York City. We can’t even go into the subways feeling safe . ... The [bail] reform, everything has to change.
“We have to be more conscious that ... we are harming New York City.”
Enriquez was cold-bloodedly executed by gunman Andrew Abdullah on May 22 as the victim headed to meet his brother for their weekly Sunday brunch in Brooklyn, according to cops and family. Enriquez was riding in the last car of a Q train when the killer squeezed the trigger after pacing back and forth inside the train.
The killer passed the murder weapon off to a random homeless man as he made his escape.
Enriquez’s partner, Pollack, 54, told the Daily News the victim never took the subway on weekends but took one that Sunday due to Uber surge pricing.
During the funeral service, guitarist Hannah Ray played a poignant original composition about the murdered Enriquez.
“I’m not leaving,” she sang while strumming. “I’ve lived my whole life afraid of trying, I’ve lived my whole life afraid of dying. I’m never letting you go, you have a heart of gold.”
Cousin Claudia Leon, in her own sad elegy, echoed the theme that the murder suspect’s freedom despite prior arrests was partly to blame for the tragedy. Abdullah was released from prison on parole in 2019 after he was convicted of conspiracy and attempted weapon possession as part of a Manhattan gang takedown.
He was released without bail on a car theft charge just weeks before the subway slaying. He is now being held without bail on murder charges for allegedly killing Enriquez.
Abdullah was arrested May 24 following a bizarre two-day manhunt, with the suspect at one point suggesting he would surrender to ex-cop and current Mayor Adams.
But cops instead placed Abdullah in handcuffs outside a Manhattan law office before he had a chance to surrender on his own.
Msgr. Anthony Hernandez, speaking at the funeral, said it was “definitely a tragic day,” but took some solace from bringing even a little peace to the murder victim’s family.
“It’s just a horrible situation to have to experience in the city, someone just going to brunch and needlessly have his life taken,” said Hernandez. “It’s something we need to address on a larger level and make sure that the city can get back to the place where people feel safe.”’
Enriquez will be buried at St. John Cemetery in Middle Village, Queens. His brother and regular Sunday brunch partner was too overcome to attend the funeral, leaving the mourning to the rest of the clan.
An emotional wake for Enriquez was held Saturday and Sunday.
“I’m happy because he’s in a better life,” said his father. “I’m going to miss him, but so, so many other people will, too — here and in Mexico.”