The Power of Words. Family dispute, gang clash leave 5 dead in Providence

3.22.99
Family dispute, gang clash leave 5 dead in Providence
9-year-old begs father to spare her life
By KAREN LEE ZINER and GREGORY SMITH
Journal Staff Writers

PROVIDENCE -- In one bloody night, the city's 1999 murder rate nearly doubled Sunday, after a father shot and killed his three children and then himself at a Hammond Street apartment, and, separately, a violent midnight gang brawl on Althea Street left one young man dead after his skull was crushed with a concrete block.
      Another young man wounded in that street fight between two Southeast Asian gangs remained in critical condition at Rhode Island Hospital last night.
      The episode at 35 Hammond St. was a domestic dispute that briefly became a hostage-taking. It turned deadly when Maurice Young, 42, a teacher's assistant at a city school, shot his three young children one by one with a 357-Magnum Ruger revolver. Jessica, 9, was heard to beg for her life, screaming, "No, Daddy! No, Daddy!"
      The bodies of Jessica, Jasmin Young, 12, and Maurice Young Jr., 6, were found in different bedrooms of the second-floor apartment, police said. Young's body was also found in a bedroom.
      Waleska Cruz, 31, mother of the three children, was taken to Rhode Island Hospital, where she was sedated for psychological trauma.
      Less than a mile away, on Althea Street, a brawl between members of two rival gangs, "Providence Street Boyz" and the "Oriental Rascals," spawned an outdoor bloodbath that witnesses said at its height involved 40 to 50 people fighting with bottles and bricks, fists and feet.
      Savann Moeung, 19, who relatives said had been trying "to turn his life around," was killed when his head was crushed with a concrete block, according to police. His brother, Souroeun Moeung, was murdered in 1996, in what police then believed was a gang-related incident.
      Chris Colletta, 19, remained in critical condition at Rhode Island Hospital last night with injuries from the fight.

      IN A NEWS conference, Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr. called it "a sad day for the city." Before yesterday, there were five murders this year. Today, nine.
      In what he called "one of our city's most terrible tragedies," Cianci rued the puzzling instance of a father killing his three children, and noted that just last week, Waleska Cruz had failed to tell authorities that her husband had struck her. If it had been reported, the police would have acted and a disaster might have been averted, he said.       "The very nature of this violent act makes it incomprehensible. It fills my heart, and all of our hearts, with immense sadness," said the mayor.
      "Three innocent children, with years and years of life, laughter, the fulfillment of their promise ahead of them, are now, instead, with God," Cianci added. He asked that the city come together "as a community, to remember them, and to pray for them."
      As he wondered aloud, "How can a father kill his own kids?" Cianci called the slayings another argument for legislation he is pressing that would force tighter controls on gun manufacturers.
      Last night, more than 100 people gathered on Dexter Field, in the city's Armory District, to condemn the violence and vow to better support one another as neighbors. The mostly white crowd, a sign of the Armory District's growing transformation from immigrant stronghold to enclave of artists and professionals, clutched shoulders, prayed, and held aloft candles under a cool drizzle.
      "What we have to do as neighbors is to respect one another and to love and look out for one another," Ann Hill, 72, who is black, told the group, adding that the neighborhood's racial and ethnic diversity is a strength. "We neighbors don't like to butt in on each other, but if we hear screaming from a house, maybe we should get involved."
      Cianci said counseling will be offered today at Roger Williams Middle School and the Carl G. Lauro Memorial Elementary School, where the children were enrolled.

      ADDRESSING THE Althea Street slaying, Cianci noted that the city's gang- prevention efforts have been "fairly successful."
      "It's the first (gang) incident I can remember in an awful long time," the mayor said of the Althea Street brawl.
      Six suspects, including one juvenile, are in custody and will be charged in the case, Cianci said. They are Sophal Chum, 19, of 203 Althea St.; Rum Chau, 20, of 57 Hathaway St.; Robert Chan, 19, of 269 Waldo St.; Chanda Kun, 19, of 660 Cranston St., and Sambo Thaing, 19, of 127 Bellevue Ave., all to be charged with murder and assault with intent to commit murder.
      A 14-year-old male will be referred to Family Court on a charge of assault with intent to commit murder.
      Police Chief Urbano Prignano Jr. added, "We expect to make a lot more arrests."
      Meanwhile, macabre remnants of the incident stained Althea Street for several blocks.
      Tire tracks left a bloodied trail for more than 70 feet; more blood pooled into puddles of up to a foot in diameter. Bloodied surgical gauze pads and latex gloves remained stuck to the pavement, or blew into neighboring driveways on the raw spring breeze.

      BOTH INCIDENTS erupted in the West End, as did a third unrelated incident at 2:30 a.m. outside 34 Hanover St. Caesar Perez, 19, of Hanover Street, was hit in the leg by shotgun pellets that penetrated the door of a car in which he was riding.
      At 35 Hammond St., Cianci traced the chain of events to the "unreported domestic dispute" on March 16, during which Young struck Cruz.
      At about 7 p.m. Saturday, Young showed up at a relative's house in East Providence as Cruz dropped off her two daughters for a sleepover. Husband and wife "had a calm discussion during which it was made clear to Young that Cruz was ending their relationship," the mayor said.
      Cruz went home with her son and Young went to the home of a cousin, William Perry, where he tried to borrow a gun. Perry refused, but Young swung a hammer at him and tried to strangle him with an electrical cord, and Young managed to find and load the gun.
      Young went to East Providence, woke his daughters and took them home. Meanwhile, shortly after 10 p.m., Cruz's sister, Vaneza Vallejo, her boyfriend, Edwin Lauriano, and their 10-year-old son arrived from New York for a visit at the Hammond Street apartment.
      They left for a quick trip to buy soda, and when they returned, Young's black Cadillac Fleetwood was parked behind the house. Young confronted them with the gun, forced Lauriano to tie up Vallejo, and then he tied up Lauriano.
      At one point Cruz managed to knock the gun from Young's hand, Cianci said, and she ran out to call police.
      Jasmin emerged from her bedroom, Young took her back inside, and Lauriano and Vallejo heard a gunshot. They then managed to free themselves and scramble to safety.
      Neighbors said they heard arguing in the apartment shortly before midnight.
      "I heard some loud crashing about and I heard one gunshot," said Dana Arpin, an upstairs neighbor. Then, Arpin said, he heard a woman say, "Hurry, go get the police."
      Just before or at about the time that police arrived, Jessica's voice was audible upstairs and on the street. "No, Daddy! No, Daddy!" Two more shots followed.
      Arpin said he smelled gunsmoke in his kitchen.
      With Lauriano, Vallejo and Cruz outside, a neighbor said, a police car pulled up. Lauriano yelled to the police: "He's got a gun. He's got a gun. He's got all the kids tied up up there."
      "Who's got a gun?" a policeman asked loudly.
      "Maurice."
      Cruz screamed, "I can't believe I left my kids there. I shouldn't have left my kids."
      One or more police officers shouted to the house, "Maurice." No answer. "Maurice." Nothing.
      One officer hurled a rock through the apartment window, apparently to see if there would be a response. When there was none, police with dogs stormed in the front and back doors of the house.
      Nearby neighbors saw the 10-year-old Vallejo boy come out in his pajamas; police said he hid in the apartment during the killings. A man wrapped a coat around him and hustled him away.
      Blood spots led from the apartment down the white-painted stairs, across the doorsill, down the front steps and onto the sidewalk.
      Young fired only four times all told, the police said. Jasmin was shot in the head and Young was shot in the head. The other two children were taken by rescue to Rhode Island Hospital, where they were pronounced dead. It was not immediately known where the bullets hit the other two children.

      SIMULTANEOUSLY, chaos erupted on Althea Street.
      Police officers responded to a report of "a fight" at about midnight - a fight that claimed the life of Moeung, reportedly enrolled in the program known as "Youth Build," and left Colletta, reportedly a student at Mount Pleasant High School, fighting for his life.
      At the news conference, Cianci said a police investigation determined that "the two victims were walking on Althea Street with other young men." Moeung and some of the others with him "are known to be members of a gang known as the 'PSB' or the 'Providence Street Boyz,' " the mayor said.
      As that group neared Sorrento Street, a man known to the group as "Bonzy," and known to be a member of the rival "Oriental Rascals," came out of a house "and immediately attacked Moeung," Cianci said.
      As Moeung's friends attempted to go to his aid, "numerous members of the Oriental Rascals rushed into the street from 203 Althea St." and attacked Moeung and Colletta.
      "Suspects used sticks and bottles, as well as kicking, to assault the two victims," Cianci said. "At some point during this fight, the assailants picked up a concrete block and smashed it across the victims' heads."       Police said the attack possibly was in retaliation for an altercation between the Providence Street Boyz and the Oriental Rascals two weeks ago at the Cranston Portuguese Club, at 20 Second Ave., in Cranston.
      Residents who witnessed the altercation from apartment windows said that when police arrived, the fight was largely over and two bodies lay in the street.
      "I looked out the window and there were two bodies there," said Jahaira Rivera. After five months on Althea Street, Rivera said, "I want to move already. I have three little boys. I want to move."
      A 15-year-old girl who watched from an apartment above the fray said she could tell that the people involved were likely members of Southeast Asian gangs, "by the way they dressed." By that, she meant, "they wear one pant leg rolled up, and they had on muscle shirts."
      Meanwhile, several relatives of Moeung consoled each other as they stood, shivering, blocks away from the murder site.
      Moeung's cousin, Tiana Phay, said she watched the fight "from upstairs," without realizing her cousin was a victim.
      "You heard them screaming. . . . I went outside. I was like, 'Oh, my God. Oh, my God'," she said.
      "Some people were yelling, 'Stop,' some people were yelling 'Kill,' and some people were yelling, 'Die -----, this is OR (Oriental Rascals),' " she said.
      Although Moeung had been incarcerated for a time at the Rhode Island Training School, and "he was in trouble before," she said, "he was going to school, getting his life straight."
      It was the second tragedy in the Moeung family, she added. Moeung's brother, Souroeun Moeung, was murdered in 1996 in a dispute over drugs that police also believe was gang-related.
      Chantou Lech, 20, who is Moeung's niece, said, "I just hope he rests in peace. I hope he meets up with his brother."
      Yesterday morning, grains of white rice lay strewn on a sidewalk in front of a house where Moeung's relatives sat on Althea Street.
      Said Phay, "The (Cambodian) adults put that there this morning." It's an old Khmer custom, she explained, "to keep away the ghosts" and bad spirits, after a tragedy has taken place.
      - With reports from staff writer Arial Sabar.

MURDER VICTIMS

      *John D. Cumiskey, 22, of Hyannis, Mass. UMass-Dartmouth student shot Jan. 15 in an alley off Weybosset Street in downtown Providence, while resisting a robbery. On March 2, police arrested Elicier "Pickles" Ortiz, 18, of 22 Georgia Ave., and Joao Neves, 16, of 417 Manton Ave.
      *Larry Dean Hill, 38, Stanwood Street, Providence. Found shot to death on a snowy sidewalk in Elmwood early Jan. 30. Police call it apparently drug- related. No arrests.
      *Monique M. Smith, shot to death early on Feb. 1 in a stairwell at 14 Benedict St. Smith, mother of two children, was recently released from state prison. Police believe it was drug-related. Arrested Michele A. Garcia, 22, of 142 Althea St., on Feb. 16 in Virginia, where she is wanted for another murder in Richmond, Va.
      *David Ramos, 27, of 80 Lowell Ave., Silver Lake section of Providence. Shot to death in his home on Feb. 27. Police say shooting appeared drug- related. No arrests.
      *Kathleen J. Souza, 42, of Allen Avenue, Warwick. Her body was found early March 11 behind Roger Williams Middle School. No arrests.

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