12 kids of slain ma in turmoil
The surviving children of the heroic mom who died shielding kids from gang gunfire are living in separate homes amid a custody battle between their grandmother and father.
Zurana Horton, 34, was gunned down in October as she picked up her daughter from PS 298 in Brownsville, leaving behind a dozen children ages 1 to 18.
Now Denise Peace, who took in seven of the kids in her Bushwick apartment, is fighting Oneil Vaughan so three of the siblings don’t return to their crimeplagued neighborhood.
“These children mean everything to me,” said Peace, 55, a home health aide. “How can he put them right back where their mother got killed?”
Vaughan took in two daughters, 10 and 15 years old, after Horton’s death. He already had custody of two boys with autism and one with cerebral palsy.
The former in-laws were friendly until Vaughan slammed Peace with a custody claim demanding she appear in court Thursday for two girls, Jazhaia, 8, and Alexis, 11, and one boy, Tyquran, 16.
But Peace claims that the dad is already struggling to care for the five children that he lives with in Hor- ton’s old two-bedroom pad.
Vaughan couldn’t be reached for comment.
Brownsville residents are still recovering from Horton’s brazen slaying, when a teenage thug fired shots into a crowd that included grade-schoolers and their parents. Cops arrested three men from the 8 Block gang days later.
Yesterday, locals set up a fund for Horton’s kids and staged a tribute to her at the school where she was gunned down.
“I guess I feel sad,” said Alexis, who attended PS 298 and saw her mom get shot. “Sometimes, I miss her.”
The teen now attends PS 384 in Bushwick and said she doesn’t want to live in Brownsville again.
Peace said her grandchildren are finally starting to smile again.
“I’ll do whatever I can to make them feel better,” she said.