The community of Harlem is reeling from the loss of a well-known grandmother and activist who was killed after being struck by a stray bullet.
On the evening of Tuesday, April 22, Excenia Mette, 61, was shot in the head as she attempted to defuse an argument outside of Tamara’s Beauty Bar—a salon on Lenox Ave. near W. 113th St. According to the New York Daily News, Mette, who had been inside the salon when she heard the argument begin, thought her grandson may have been in danger, police told reporters on Wednesday.
Her grandson pleaded with her to return to the salon, as she attempted to convince the two men and her grandson to go home. Things escalated to the point of gunfire—with both men firing at one another. One man was shot in the foot, the other fatally striking Mette in the crossfire.
Police were able to apprehend the gunman who was shot in the foot, but the other individual, whose stray bullet struck Mette, remains at large according to ABC 7.
Mette was transferred to a local hospital where she was pronounced dead.
“We have a grandmother that is lost in this community due to a senseless act of violence,” Mayor Adams said at the scene, per the Daily News. “Innocent New Yorkers should not be the victims of violence.”
Mette, a beloved grandmother, mother, aunt, and well-known Harlem community member, was also a longtime member of Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network. She also ran food giveaways and, at one point, owned and operated Momma Zee’s Food to Plez, the first woman and Black-owned bodega in New York City since 1987, CBS News reported. Momma Zee’s closed during the pandemic.
Wednesday afternoon, roughly 50 people gathered for an emotional vigil held for Mette on Lenox Ave., which remained closed off due to the police investigation at the scene, according to CBS News. Those in attendance included family members, fellow community activists, and local Councilmember Yusef Salaam.
She was remembered as “a pillar,” someone who strove for real change in her community and treated all the young men like her grandsons.
“My sister was an anchor,” said the victim’s sister, Diane London, per the Daily News. “She probably fed the person who did what they did. She probably spoke to him earlier that day. My sister was the kind of person who would run into a fire. She ran out for all of those kids. We were telling her to stay inside, don’t run out, because these kids don’t care about you. But she was that kind of person…. She wanted to see change, and her life was taken because she wanted that change.”
The National Action Network told the New York Daily News that they are working closely with Mette’s family in the wake of this tragedy.
“Let this moment strengthen our resolve to continue the fight for real change,” said Rev. Ronald McHenry, a coordinator at the network’s House of Justice. “Rev. Al Sharpton has made it clear: whatever the family needs — financially or otherwise — we will be there for them. We are committed to standing with the community not only in grief, but in the ongoing struggle for justice, safety and peace.”
