Quanisha Wright had just celebrated her 16th birthday when she and a friend planned to attend a birthday party on a Saturday night in May. It would be the last time her great-grandmother and two brothers would see her alive.
On May 9 around 1:15 a.m., gunshots rang out after two men returned to a birthday party for a one-year-old child seeking revenge against one person and shot two innocent people instead.
Wright and her friend, Marvin Wiggins were attending the party at 1776 Weeks Avenue in the Mount Hope section of the South Bronx, which had ended, but the two teens and friends remained behind to clean up when the shooting began.
WABC News reported that Wright was shot in the chest and arm after witnesses said she defended Latiia Eleazer’s mother, who was being taunted by the gunmen. Eleazer, 20, is the aunt of the child the birthday party was being held for. She was also shot, but survived. Wiggins was shot in the torso and later died of his injury. He was also trying to defend the elder Eleazer woman when the ruthless gunmen shot him.
"He was saving her, he was saving her!" insisted Marvin's girlfriend, Trisha.
"He didn't have no gun he was saving her! He saved a grown woman's life!" cried Marvin's aunt, MiAsia Chadwick, "Stop the violence!!!! This is crazy, please! These are babies, 15 and 16! My nephew and Quanisha were innocent! My God!"
Police arrested Dexter “Lil Dex” Green, 20, and Robert “Jacob” Mitchell, 24, the day after the shootings and charged both, who have extensive criminal records, with murder.
Mitchell's criminal dossier boasts of 12 prior arrests beginning in 2001, and ranging from possession of marijuana to attempted murder.
Green has eight arrests under his belt including a juvenile charge of assault.
Bronx newspaper The Gothamist reported that Green allegedly gave his father's .45-caliber gun to Mitchell, who was upset that he'd been ejected from the birthday party earlier in the evening and returned looking for payback against the man he fought with earlier.
The criminal duo showed up at the party uninvited and was allegedly harassing some of the female partygoers, which led to a fight between Mitchell and another man who was defending the honor of the young women.
According to the New York Post, Green gave the gun to Mitchell because he was going to "fight with his fists." Later, Green allegedly told police, "I'm so sorry -- I didn't know he was going to start shooting."
The Daily News reported that Mitchell told investigators that the only thing he was guilty of was smoking "angel [dust] every day."
Wright, who celebrated her 16th birthday the Friday before her murder, was a student at the Bronx Leadership Academy.
"She'd just had her first kiss. She was growing up and loving life. She was a wonderful kid," said her father's fiancée, Kenya Graham. "She was such a good child."
Andrea Wiggins, the mother of the second victim described her son a loving child. “He didn’t want anybody being hurt and now he’s gone,” the grief stricken mother said before shouting and wailing in anguish.
Hassan Wright, 13, the youngest of Wright's brothers described his big sister as “unique, smart and beautiful,” and said that he misses her.
Friends erected a memorial in the hallway of the apartment building Wiggins lived in where they gathered in memory of their friends whose lives were senselessly ended over an argument.
"Marvin died because of me," said Abdullah Mack, a friend of Wiggins'. Wracked with guilt, Mack told ABC News that he was the intended target, not Wiggins and Wright.
"We had a fight and he comes back with a gun and instead kills 2 innocent bystanders." Mack was the man Mitchell fought with earlier in the evening.
Both suspects are being held and face trial for the shootings.
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