Harlem residents are in mourning on Thursday over the shooting death this week of a grandmother and local business pioneer, struck down with a stray bullet.
Excenia Mette, 61, was fatally gunned down at around 10:30 p.m. on April 22 along West 113th Street and Lenox Avenue. Police say Mette overheard a barrage of gunfire erupt and she rushed to the street to check on her grandson when she was struck in the head with the stray shot.
Officers from the 28th Precinct responded to the shooting. EMS rushed Mette to Mount Sinai Morningside Hospital where she was pronounced dead.
Cops say 23-year-old Darious Smith was also shot in the foot, but he was not an innocent bystander. They claim he was an intended target and was found after the shooting in possession of a firearm. Smith now faces charges of attempted murder and criminal possession of a weapon; police sources said he was previously arrested for a stabbing in 2024.
However, the pursuit of justice in Mette’s killing continues as detectives seek at least three other individuals connected to the shootout, including the person who fired the fatal bullet.
Mayor Eric Adams visited the crime scene Wednesday afternoon. He lamented Mette’s death as “a senseless act of violence.”
“It’s a grandmother who appears to have been an unintended target that stepped out to look on her grandson, who was outdoors when she heard some form of ruckus,” Mayor Eric Adams said. “The case in itself just personifies what we have been talking about. When you get gangs, when you get repeated offenders, when you get drugs, you get a result of innocent people being the bystanders to violence.”
Mette was affectionately known in the Harlem community as Momma Zee. According to a GoFundMe fundraiser, she was the first black female bodega owner in the Big Apple since 1987. Mette started off by serving food in front of her apartment building before graduating to become the owner of Momma Zee’s Food to Plez Deli located at 2061 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd.
In September 2020, the business suffered from the COVID-19 pandemic, and Mette created a GoFundMe to help survive the crisis. Donations, Mette wrote at the time, were to be used “to pay our rent, utilities, payroll, liabilities and food distributors.”
The eatery had become a favorite for locals and a beloved dining spot.
Police are asking anyone with information surrounding the tragic shooting to come forward. The investigation remains ongoing.
Anyone with information regarding the shooting can call Crime Stoppers at 800-577-TIPS (for Spanish, dial 888-57-PISTA). You can also submit tips online at crimestoppers.nypdonline.org, or on X (formerly Twitter) @NYPDTips. All calls and messages are kept confidential.
