The devastated mom of a 22-year-old young man who died on Sunday, Aug. 27, in tragic circumstances after falling from the 38th floor of Bedford Park’s Tracey Towers housing complex has said even though her son was on medication for mental health reasons, she doesn’t believe he took his own life, adding his actions prior to his death do not support this. She shared loving memories of her son as she and her family attempt to carry on with their lives without him.

 

Cindy Rivera of Yonkers, mom of Mikey Malave, a daughter, and two other sons, said her late son who she said was diagnosed with schizophrenia earlier this summer, had lived with her in Yonkers and had been a visiting Tracey Towers the day he died. Speaking to Norwood News on Sept. 7, Rivera, at times still referring to her beloved son in the present tense, said, “Mikey is the most loving person. He’s an emotional person. He gave me so many kisses and so many hugs. Every day, I had a hug and every day I had a kiss. He was always so curious about my life and wanted me to tell him the story of when I was younger.”

 

The brokenhearted mother explained how her son had dreams of becoming an entrepreneur. “He never wanted to work [for someone else],” Rivera said. “He said he wanted to find a job that gave him passive income because he said that working, you don’t have enough time for your life and to enjoy [one’s] own life.” She continued, “He was a writer, and he wrote in his journals, tons of journals, positive affirmations and he would talk about that.”

 

She said that about a month before his death, she recorded a video of him talking about life in general, about having a list of goals and how people could learn to manifest the things that they wanted in life. Rivera said that Malave said to her, “Mom, are you recording?” and she said she was, and that her son asked her, “Are you going to show this to your work partner?” and she said that she was, and that he had replied, “Great! Show them to your work partner so that I can have a good reputation and they can hire me in the future.” Rivera went on to say that her son died on a Sunday. “That Monday, he had a doctor’s appointment that he was looking forward to,” she said.

She continued, saying that Malave was also good in school. Smiling, she said, “He was a bit of a class clown. He was a funny guy. This guy could walk up to anybody without being afraid and make a friend. His teacher always said that he was a class clown because he would finish his work before everyone, and he wouldn’t let the other kids finish.”

 

She said she estimates that her son had lived with schizophrenia for three years but was only formally diagnosed last summer. “So, I’ve always known that he had schizophrenia, but he was hard-headed and he didn’t want to be diagnosed, so officially, official diagnosis happened June 18th of this year,” Rivera said. “As of the last two months, he was taking medication and it was doing him very good, and he was responding.”

 

The morning of his death, Rivera said, “My son got up, he washed all his clothes, and he hung them up to dry in my backyard,” adding that she had cameras which show him drying them. “He ate his cereal, and he asked me if I wanted to do a barbecue, that he would pay for all the food,” she said. She explained that she couldn’t that particular day. Rivera continued, “That day, he left my house probably around 10.40 a.m. I called him back around 11.40 a.m. and I told him that if he wanted to go on a hike with me and my daughter (his sister) and he said he would love to.”

She said he also called his friends to see what they were doing that day. “It didn’t sound like someone who would commit suicide when you’re asking people what are their plans,” Rivera said. “So, I told him I would pick him up as soon as I got back from Home Depot from buying a washer and dryer, and that I would call him.”

 

Rivera said Malave also went to a friend’s house. “I would say he got there around 11 a.m.,” she said, adding after spending some time there in Yonkers, he told his friend that he would be back, and saying, “I’m going for a walk.” A friend of Malave had informed Rivera that he had met a girl three weeks before his death who lived at Tracey Towers. “I don’t know who she was,” Rivera said.

 

Rivera said that detectives later told her that her son had walked into the Tracey Towers building complex by himself at around 2.13 p.m. and that they said that he had been in a “zombie-like” state. She said he got into the elevator, and a lady in the elevator said he had been pacing back and forth. Rivera said she was told that the lady got off the elevator halfway up to the top of the building and that her son continued to the 38^th floor.

She continued, “When he got off, the detectives said that he was holding his head and he was pacing back and forth, and that he got off the elevator and he made a left to the roof.”

 

When asked by Norwood News about the incident, an NYPD spokesperson said officers responded to a 911 call at 2.18 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 27, to 40 West Mosholu Parkway South regarding an aided person. “Upon arrival, officers observed an unidentified, unconscious male lying on the ground in front of the location, with injuries indicative of falling from an elevated position,” the spokesperson said. “EMS responded and pronounced the aided male deceased on scene. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner will determine the exact cause of death. The investigation remains ongoing at this time.” They said the deceased was identified as Michael [“Mikey”] Malave of Yonkers.

 

Meanwhile, when asked for comment on the incident, a representative of Tracey Towers management company said, “The incident on August 27, 2023, is currently under investigation by the NYPD. Regarding the doors to the roofs, they are alarmed and they are not locked. It violates the NYC Building Code to lock any egress door, including doors leading to roof decks.”

Rivera said her son was a very loving person. “He loved himself a lot and I didn’t want people to think that just because he had schizophrenia that the statistics say that this is what they do,” she said. “He always told me about his feelings. We had plans, and someone who was about to kill themselves wouldn’t wash their clothes and tell me he wanted to have a barbecue and this and that, right? He always said to me I would never do anything to myself because I love myself way too much.”

 

She said many of Malave’s friends had been coming to visit a memorial installed outside Tracey Towers in his memory as well as his grave. “My daughter stays there for hours,” she said. “She just started back at work again and she’s devastated.

 

Asked what kind of person her son was, Rivera said he had a wonderful relationship with his siblings. “One day, him and his sister were talking about when a person feels depressed, sad,” Rivera said. “He made his sister promise. He said, ‘Amanda, keep striving to do better. Be proud of yourself. I’m so proud of you,’ he told her, and he said, ‘I want you to promise me that you will never take your own life.’ That’s what he told his sister, and his sister told me [she said], ‘You promise me the same,’ and he said, ‘I would never do that. I love myself too much,’.”

 

Asked if he had said this recently, Rivera said that he had said it at the beginning of the year. “He told her that, and he said that he loved himself too much,” Rivera said. She went on to say that once when her son was on his way to pick up a disability check, he had said to her, “Mom, I feel so bad that you work all your life. You do too much, Mom. You do too much. You’re my role model and I look up to you. I don’t want you to work no more. I don’t want you to struggle. Mom, quit your job and I’ll take care of you with my disability check.”

 

Smiling as she recalled her son’s words, Rivera said she said to him, “Baby, that’s not enough money.” She went on to say that about a month ago, Malave had also asked her, “Can I live with you for the rest of my life, mom? I promise you I won’t bother you. I’ll keep to myself. I just want to stay with you for the rest of my life.”

Asked about his life in Yonkers, Rivera said her son had a nice room and that he had been taking his medication. “The detectives told me that he was in a zombie-like mode [in the video of the day of the incident] but they don’t understand my son,” she said. “My son was taking medication and the zombie-like mode… he wasn’t in a zombie-like mode. His mobility was bad because the medication….was making him move like a sloth, like a turtle and it gave him ADHD where he couldn’t stand still, so they don’t understand.”

 

She continued, “He wasn’t in a zombie-like mode because he was going to do something. He’s been like that because of his medication. If you look at my cameras, he looks already like in a zombie-like mode, but that’s because of his mobility and how his body moves because of the medication. It wasn’t because of anything else.”

 

Asked about his interests, Rivera said Malave, who would have turned 23 on January 8, 2024, said, “He was a really good basketball player. He loved to play basketball. He loved to rap music. He told me that he wanted me to get him DJ equipment.” Chuckling gently, Rivera said, “He wasn’t that much of a good dancer but before he wanted to talk to a girl or dance with a girl, he would practice his moves the night before.”

 

She continued, “Mike loved to write. He loves to be with his friends. He loves the company and he never wanted to be alone. He’d been looking forward to going to Puerto Rico on a vacation. We were supposed to go on vacation in October and he told me the night before, ‘Mom, I can’t wait ‘til we go on vacation’.”

Malave’s grandmother, Nancy, also spoke of him as a loving, good-hearted, young man. “If I start I’ll never finish,” she said. “He also would just call me just to say, ‘I love ya.’ Whenever he was with me at my house, he’d give me countless hugs and kisses. He told his other grandmother the same thing, that he loves us. When he needs to express himself, he can’t wait to let it be known.”

 

Nancy went on to say that one day as Malave was leaving school on his way to her house which was only a few blocks away, he couldn’t wait to tell her what he wanted to tell her and that he was texting her excitedly while he was walking over. “He’s telling me that he wants me to know that he loves me so much and that he appreciates me always being there for him,” Nancy said, adding that she replied, “Can you do me a favor? Shut off the phone, get over here and give me my hug!” She said that made him laugh. “He was that kind of kid. He would always tell me, ‘Grandma, the chicken is so good!’ Of course, I was making him fried chicken and rice and things, you know?”

 

She said on another occasion, he was at her house only a couple of weeks ago and she saw him washing some socks and she said, “Why are you doing that? I have clean socks for you.” She explained that his grandpa had bought things like that for him in case of emergency. She said his grandpa then went into a room and gave him a pack of new socks and underwear and that he said, “Thanks Grandpa. You always do this for me.”

 

Nancy continued, “That’s the kind of kid and young man he is. He’s always been like that, very lovable, good hearted, never had a bad thing to say about anyone, you know?” She went on to say that they used to play Jenga together and that she would try and get him to stay for longer at her house playing the game and he would say, “Grandma, you keep beating me!” Nancy added, “He was in real good spirits you know? I just don’t get it.”

 

Cindy then went on to say that her son also loved art, that she didn’t have any of his drawings, but was sure there are some on his phone, which she currently does not have access to yet. She also spoke of how gracious Malave was when receiving gifts. “Whenever he got a present, clothes or shoes, he would take off all his clothes and he would wear it straight away then and there!” she said, smiling. “He could not wait! Even if I got him winter boots, he would put them on in the summer, and he was so dramatic when he had a gift! He would get up with a facial expression, he’ll do a turn, and he’ll look like it was the best gift in the entire world, and his affection and the way that he was, it was incredible because he was such an affectionate person.”

She then told another clothes-related story involving his sister. “You would think that a brother wouldn’t steal a sister’s clothes, but he always stole her clothes!” Rivera said, chuckling. “He would steal her sweaters because she had name brand sweaters. My daughter has a girlfriend who also dresses like a boy and he even stole some underwear from her. He thought they were his! We looked at him and we said, “They aren’t yours!” My daughter said, “Those are my girlfriend’s!”

 

Rivera recalled some other funny stories like when her son borrowed his stepdad’s Jordans [sports shoes]. “He took his stepfather’s brand new Jordans that he wasn’t supposed to take without permission,” she said. “He went to his friend’s house and in his friend’s house, somebody stole the Jordans from my son and he was so nervous. He said, ‘I can’t go back home! I took these Jordans from my stepfather!’ So, we had to hunt the person that took the Jordans to try to get them back and we did!”

 

Later during the conversation, however, Cindy’s smiles turned to tears as she spoke of her son’s funeral and burial, which she said his friends from both elementary and high school attended. “I buried my son already, and I took a picture of his burial and there was a sunlight [beam] on top of him, and it looked like it was such a bright light on top of his grave,” she said, crying. “I know it was just the sun, but it was just a beautiful ray of sunlight. I miss him.”

 

For anyone who may be living with or knows someone who may have schizophrenia, help is available. 988 is free and confidential and operates 24 hours per day, 7 days per week via phone, text, and internet chat. 988 is multilingual and multicultural. Call or text 988 or go to 988, an online resource for individuals, families and agencies in need of help and information. Click here for more information.

 

Bereavement counseling is also available. Click here for more information.

 

*David Greene contributed to this story. 

 

Editor’s Note: A section of this story has since been updated to better clarify Mikey Malave’s interactions with various people on his last day.