‘Good kid’ shot dead
Kin shocked as aspiring dancer, 18, slain outside his apt. bldg.
A Bronx teen fatally shot outside the apartment building where he lived was an aspiring dancer who loved being the center of attention, grieving relatives said Monday.
Joseph Ozuna, 18, was repeatedly shot in the head and neck outside the Mitchel Houses on Alexander Ave. at E. 135th St. in Mott Haven on Sunday afternoon, cops said.
Medics rushed the to Lincoln Hospital, couldn’t be saved.
No arrests have been made, and family members said they had no information about Ozuna’s death — or why anyone would target such a fun-loving teen.
“We don’t know anything,” Lorena Ozuna, 40, Joseph’s half sister, said in Spanish. “His mother is with the detectives, and we’re waiting for her to get back to tell us what happened.”
She said Ozuna got along with everybody.
“He was really friendly, and victim but he shared a lot with people,” she said. “He was really happy, a good kid.”
Ozuna usually had a smile on his face, the sister said, but he was happiest when he was moving his feet to the rhythm of a Latin tune.
“He was always dancing,” Lorena said. “He loved to be the center of attention.”
Salsa, merengue, bachata and more. If a band could play it, Ozuna could dance to it, Lorena said.
The proud sister said Ozuna earned tons of trophies for his fancy footwork, and had traveled around the country and abroad to compete in dance events.
“He even went to the White House to dance for the president with his dance school,” Lorena said. “He had a lot of rhythm.”
She said Ozuna’s mother still in shock.
“She’s devastated,” Lorena said. “He was her only child.”
Lorena said she celebrated her is birthday Saturday, and then got the news about Ozuna the next day. She said she got a call that he was at the hospital, and that paramedics had tried to save him but couldn’t.
Neighbor Eddie Rodriguez, 63, said he heard three shots and ran out of the building just in time to see Ozuna already on the ground.
“I was in the lobby when I heard the shots,” Rodriguez said. “I didn’t see anything but the kid laying on the ground. That’s all I saw.”
Friends stopped by as Rodriguez was talking to light candles in the same lobby.
“This kid did nothing wrong,” Rodriguez said, shaking his head. “He’s always with his mother. He seems like a good kid.”
Neighbor Elizabeth Ladson, 52, said she’d known Ozuna since he was a little dancer.
“He was a good kid,” Ladson said as she passed by the lobby memorial. “He just had some friends that weren’t really him. He just hung around with a bad crowd.”
“I just saw him like a few days ago,” she added. “He hugged me. He kissed me. I can’t believe it was him.”