LOVE & GRIEF FOR SLAIN PA
Shocked kin, friends remember victim
The 91-year-old Brooklyn man killed in a horrifying home invasion was remembered at his funeral Friday as a devout family man — as relatives expressed relief that a suspect was arrested.
“I hope that this person is prosecuted, and then we can all move on from this,” said Dorene Hunter, 47, a grandniece of Waldiman Thompson, who died in front of his 100-year-old wife, Ethlin, in their Bedford-Stuyvesant brownstone last week.
“Maybe he needs to get help? Because it’s a tragedyy . . . for someone to come in and do this to the elderly,” she said..
Dwayne Blackwood, 27, who was identified through surveillance video, was arrestedd Thursday for the attack.
Blackwood was taken from the 81st Precinct station house Fridayy night where he was charged with second-de-egree murder. He was laterter arraigned in Brooklynoklyn Criminal Court where he was ordered held without bail.ail
At the Hanson Place Seventhday Adventist Church in Fort Greene on Friday, dozens of Thompson’s friends and family members filled the pews to pay their respects.
The Jamaica-born machinist died of a heart attack wwhen two tthieves ststormed his homhome, tied him and his wife up with a cord and made off with nearly $15,000, sources said. His death was ruled a homicide. “My father had two priorities — religious consciousness and education. Education was essential,” his son, Delroy Thompson, said during the service.
“He made sure food was on the table, and books were available. He would go to Timbuktu to get a book that was not in the shop.”
Relatives recalled Waldiman as a devout Christian who never hesitated to help his family.
“My mother went to cosmetology school,” Delroy said. “My father built her salon . . . He built all the equipment.”
Alison Watkins, Waldiman’s oldest granddaughter, said that the family felt “cheated” by his death and that Blackwood’s arrest offered little comfort.
“I feel some sense of relief, but it’s not going to bring him back,” she said. “It’s just tough at this point.”
Police have identified a second suspect in the home invasion but had yet to make an arrest, police sources said.
Blackwood, who works for the Mount Sinai Health System, was arrested by the feds in 2013 for marijuana-distribution conspiracy and use of a firearm in connection with a drug-trafficking crime, but it was unclear if he was ever convicted, sources said.