Within moments of Leandra Feliz emerging from a vigil held at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Belmont, on the evening of June 20, ahead of a planned procession to mark the first anniversary of the murder of her 15-year-old son, Lesandro “Junior” Guzman-Feliz, the heavens suddenly burst open.

Feliz’s face broke into a broad smile, amid applause from onlookers, as she raised her eyes and arms skyward in an apparent secret moment of connection with her deceased son. Dressed in jeans, boots and a t-shirt depicting an image of Junior, she faced off against the media scrum with a resolute sense of purpose and strength, and as the rain streamed down her face, her family and supporters gradually gathered around her.

Asked if she felt the weather was some sort of sign from above, she smiled and responded gently, “I wish.” Indeed, the heavy rain appeared to serve as both a motivating factor and one further obstacle to be overcome by the family and wider Bronx community, shocked and saddened at the brutal murder, exactly one year earlier, of the Bronx teenager outside a nearby bodega on the corner of East 183rd Street and Bathgate Avenue.

An hour earlier, on the steps of the church, and in the presence of the victim’s family and supporters, local Sicilian pizzeria-owner, Salvatore Natale, played Ave Maria on the saxophone in tribute to the slain teenager. “It’s a song that comes from a tragedy so I thought it was appropriate to share some love and make the parents feel that they’re not alone,” he later said. Feliz then announced that the family would be returning inside the church to pray some more for Junior and would return later for the procession.

“Thank you to everyone for coming, and may God Bless you,” Feliz said, in English and in Spanish to the press and supporters when she re-appeared later. “You are all of number one importance in this. We still need you to continue to support us until the end. Thank you very much. It gives me light and hope.”

Feliz used the occasion to call for less gang violence and to highlight recently implemented after-school programs supported by local Council Member, Ritchie Torres, who was also present. Asked what she would like people to remember about her son, Feliz replied, “I would like people to love each other a little bit more and that we can make a better world.”  

Flash-lit police vehicles and a guard of honor of about 30 NYPD Explorers, a youth program for aspiring NYPD officers of which Guzman-Feliz had been a member, accompanied the family on the short candle-lit procession from the church to the bodega location where the teenager was savagely attacked by the Dominican-American Trinitarios gang with knives and a machete in a case of mistaken identity.

Thirteen youths were charged with various offenses in connection with the killing. To date, five defendants have been found guilty of murder and eight more await trial.  

The crowd, which included many young kids, cried out “No Justice, No Peace!”, “Justice for Who? Junior!” and, “Justice for Junior!” along the route in solidarity with the family who were accompanied by Torres, and Hector LaFosse, a family supporter, who said, “We’re in the process of writing a movie and we’re hoping to put a piece about Junior in there.”

Borough President, Ruben Diaz, Jr. attended the vigil. “It’s amazing how much courage and resolve the parents have,” he said. “And in many ways, instead of the community coming here and being supportive to them, they’ve created a support system for the community. This is a horrific image of a good boy who did everything that was asked of him by society – good student, good son, good neighbor, wanted to go into law enforcement.”

Diaz went on to say that in accordance with the family’s wishes, justice would continue to be sought, not just in the court system but by curbing the cycle of gang violence through community outreach.

“What we’ve done and what I was able to do is get the Governor and the Legislature, and convince them to hand over 40 acres of property in Harriman State Park to name it Camp Junior,” he said.  “And send hundreds of Bronx kids, for free, to a two-week eclipse starting next Friday, June 28th where they’re going to learn how to canoe and kayak, and all recreational stuff.  But also, there’s going to be an anti-violence or cure-violence curriculum attached to it and it’s going to be phenomenal.”

Modesto Cruz, the bodega-owner at the time of the murder, is seen in video surveillance footage briefly blocking the teenager from entering behind the counter as he flees his attackers but seconds later is seen attempting to hide the youngster under the counter, once he realizes what is happening.

Cruz has since sold the store to new management. He has been criticized by some in the community for not doing more to try to protect Guzman-Feliz, despite having called 911 twice to raise the alarm and despite feeling overwhelmed by what he described as fear and panic during the moments when the youngster was being dragged by his attackers out of the store.

The corner where Guzman-Feliz was killed was renamed “Lesandro Junior Guzman-Feliz Way” in February 2019 and his face is depicted on a giant mural overlooking the spot. The Norwood News asked Diaz about suggestions put forward by some local community members about converting the bodega where the teenager had sought refuge, in the minutes before his attack, into a community center in his name where programs could be provided to local youths with the aim of reducing gang violence.

In response, Diaz said, “I think that, over all, we should have conversations as to what business owners need to do. In this case, there’s much conversation as to what’s to happen to the location and, once again,  I would defer to Ms Feliz, Junior’s mother.”

Sarah Cole, a local resident and 9/11 survivor who uses a wheelchair, said that any tribute to Junior was a fitting tribute. “That could have been my son and my son kinda looks like him, as a matter of fact, so it touches me deeply and, you know, I’m just around to support his mom,” she said. “You know, it’s a difficult life we’re living right now.”

Among the crowd was another mother who had travelled from Florida to attend the anniversary together with her two sons, Sean and Antonio. “I didn’t know them [the victim’s family] personally,” she said. “I’ve been following the story since day one and I just seen it on the news.” She said she was a member of the Justice for Junior Facebook group which, she said, was started by a woman named Claudia Morales, and which has about 17,000 members across the world.

“We’re all together as moms, you know, so it has affected us a lot. There’s people from Ireland in the group, Brazil, all kinds of people,” she said. “We’re able to vent and say how we’re feeling, you know, so I’m glad to be a part of this group.”

One of her sons added, “All that matters is that we’re here for Junior, to support him, no matter what. Justice for Junior and their family.”

Yvette Rodriguez grew up in Little Italy and lamented the gang violence which has scourged the area in recent times. “Hey, I remember the times when we were young, when I was growing up, we would sit down on the side-walks. We would play hopscotch, we would play jump-rope, we would play double-dutch, we would play cards and games,” she said.

“My mom used to say, ‘Do me a favor, get me a quart of milk,’ and now today, you can’t even send a child to the corner store,” Rodriguez said. “They can’t get anything for you because, you know, he’s leaving your home but you don’t know if he will return because these people are waiting for whoever, like they did to Junior.”

Teenagers, Dave and Jacob, attended MS118 with Junior. Asked why they thought Junior joined the NYPD Explorers group, Dave replied, ‘“Cos it’s really annoying out here in the streets to be honest. You come, see the same people every day. Not everybody here is making a living so he didn’t want to be like everyone else. He wanted to do something different.”