At an annual celebration of Caribbean culture and tradition, two young people had their lives taken away overnight.
Tiarah Poyau, 22, and Tyreke Borel, 17, were both killed in separate incidents on Monday during J’Ouvert in Brooklyn.
Poyau came to the celebration with friends, when she was hit above her right eye with a bullet.
Police have arrested 20-year-old Reginald Moise for the shooting. They do not believe Poyau was the intended target and say Moise may have been drunk at the time.
Witnesses said that there was no fight or dispute beforehand.
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Tiarah had been working towards her Masters degree at St. John’s University.
“She had a bright future ahead of her and was taken much too soon. The entire University community sends our thoughts and prayers to the Poyau family during this difficult time,” said St. John’s University President Conrado Gempesaw.
Tiarah wrote publicly about her love for traveling abroad.
“My greatest achievement was in Spring of 2014 when I studied abroad in Paris, Rome, and Seville. Apart from being able to get away for a while, I was given the opportunity to push my limits and be responsible for my personal growth and development journey,” Poyau wrote on her LinkedIn profile, in which she described her goal to become a CPA.
“My ultimate goal is to be an accountant at a prestigious firm where I can constantly learn new things and pursue opportunities at firm locations around the world.”
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During J’Ouvert, 17-year old high school student Tyreke Borel was also killed while sitting on a bench, just 30 minutes before Poyau was shot and killed. Police said that they did not think Borel was the intended target either.
Prior to J’Ouvert, Borel’s mother had asked him not to attend the festival. “He was just a lovely child who wanted to enjoy the Labor Day. I told him to be safe. But he’s 17. He didn’t want to stay home,” said Alima St. Clair.
The eldest of three children, Tyreke was a native of Trinidad and Tobago and had lived in New York for four years.
Friends and family flocked to share their grief online, with one woman who described herself as Borel’s cousin writing, “I feel so helpless. The most I can do is just remember all the times he was happy and smiling. Ty was loved by everyone and he always made people smile and he had a huge heart.”
After last year’s shooting death of Carey Gabay, a Harvard-trained lawyer who was an aide to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, NYPD stepped up police presence at the event.
Two other people were shot and one woman was stabbed. While the event was largely peaceful, critics are now reigniting the annual debate over whether the festival should continue or be cancelled due to incidents of violence.
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