Ear Hustle

New York Man Killed After Protecting His Mother From Men That Was Insulting Her

Tony Burgess

He died defending his mom.

A Bronx man was shot in the head and killed Sunday night for standing up to a bunch of punks who were insulting his mother’s singing outside the building where they lived, officials said.

Verbena Burgess, 50, said she was outside belting out Chris Brown’s “Take You Down” when several young men across the street from the Morris Avenue apartment building where she lives told her to keep it down.

The standoff escalated into two fights, the last one of which ended with her oldest son, Tony, shot to death on a building staircase.

“The boys threw a bottle at me for singing,” Verbena said. “I said to him, ‘Why did you throw the bottle at me?’ He said, ‘Shut the f–k up.’ Then he got a piece of paper and threw it at me. I said, ‘I’m going to call 911 because you’re bothering me.’

“Then he said, ‘Call them. Call your sons.’ That’s when I rang the bell.”

Moments later, Tony and two of her other sons came outside to her defense, and got into a fight with the group from across the street before chasing them off.

“When we started fighting, they ran,” said Burgess’ brother Shaquille, 20. “So we came back inside the building and they came back and they got inside our building, and we started fighting again.

“I was in the basement in the back with my little brother fighting one of the guys and my big brother was with two other people, fighting two guys, and one of the guys came in with the gun and he shot as my big brother was going up the stairs.”

EMS rushed Burgess to Lincoln Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival, officials said.

”I just feel like if you start something and a fight is what you get yourself into, a fight is what it should be,” Shaquille said. “It shouldn’t have to be you getting a gun.”

Burgess’ family said he was trying to save money to get his own apartment, and had plans to get a GED and go to college.

“I looked after Tony and he looked after me,” Verbena said. “That was my pride, that was my joy. That was everything to me. Tony was a good person. He’d never hurt nobody — never ever ever hurt nobody.

“I was out there singing. I love to sing.”

Cops said no arrests have been made, but a lobby camera might have caught some of the melee.

“They killed my son for no reason,” Verbena said. “Maybe they tried to torture me for something, I don’t know. I was out there singing. I love to sing.”

Source: NewYorkPost.Com

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