Fight Erupts at Memorial Service for Teen Killed for His Jacket on LES

This is sad across the board.

Last Friday, 16-year-old Raphael Ward was shot and killed for his jacket on the Lower East Side. In a sad turn of events, a fight broke out at his memorial service yesterday outside of the Provenzano Lanza Funeral Home  on 2nd Avenue between East 3rd and East 2nd Streets. A witness called it "sickening, and really weird to see."

The witness, who Gothamist says asked to be identified as "John," said that he saw a "huge mass" of teenagers in front of the funeral home as the bus he was on approached 3rd Avenue: "We see the crowd shift, I see an older man with a cane shouting and being pushed by a teenager, and there's the guy in a suit trying to separate them."

When the bus began to move, people began running down the street in every direction. It got worse:

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According to John, the kids ran into the subway as the bus pulled off. Police have arrested 16-year-old Timothy Montalvo and charged him with criminal possession of a weapon and murder. It's unclear if he's suspected of shooting Ward, and police are still searching for the three other suspects.

[via Gothamist]

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