A Harlem grandmother long known as a neighborhood businesswoman and community leader was fatally struck in the head by a stray bullet when she went to check on her grandson and was caught in crossfire between rival gunmen, police said Wednesday.
Excenia Mette, 61, was in Tamara’s Beauty Bar, a salon on Lenox Ave. near W. 113th St., when she heard a loud argument between two groups about 10:20 p.m. on Tuesday, cops said. The salon is on the first floor of the apartment building where Mette lived.
Thinking her grandson was outside, Mette called out as the commotion grew, demanding the quarrel stop and for her grandchild to leave, sources said. Her grandson, who was not involved in the fight, warned her to stay in the salon.
Two men wrestled with each other, with one of the men pulling a gun and opening fire, cops said. The other man then drew his own weapon and fired back — just as Mette stepped outside, cops said.
“She was intending to see where her grandson was as the rounds started to let go on the street,” NYPD Capt. James Whitlock, commanding officer of the 28th Precinct, said Wednesday at the scene of the shooting.
Mette was struck in the head by a stray bullet, cops said.
“Mom this can’t be true I just talk to you the other night,” Mette’s heartbroken daughter Ashley Jackson wrote on Facebook. “I don’t know how I’m suppose to tell your babies. This broke my heart mom I love you so much.”
The first shooter, identified by sources as 23-year-old Darious Smith, was blasted in the left foot by his rival, cops said. The other gunman, who ran off and has not been caught, also fired the bullet that killed Mette, according to a high-ranking police source.
“We have a grandmother that is lost in this community due to a senseless act of violence,” Mayor Adams said at the scene. “Innocent New Yorkers should not be the victims of violence.”
Cops have charged Smith with weapon possession. Last year, he was arrested on robbery and assault charges for stabbing two people during a robbery, Adams said.
Cops nearby heard the gunshots and raced to the scene, where they found Smith hobbling off. They caught up with him a block away at W. 113th St. and St. Nicholas Ave., police said.
The other shooter ran off and has not been caught. Cops recovered eight shell casings over a two-block stretch on Lenox Ave. between W. 112th and W. 114th Sts., police said.
Medics rushed Mette to Mount Sinai Morningside hospital, but she could not be saved, police said. Smith is in stable condition at the same hospital.
On Wednesday, cops had cordoned off the entire block. Mette’s glasses, which fell off her face when she was shot, remained on the sidewalk. A heartbroken relative was imploring with cops to be allowed to retrieve the glasses.
“Her glasses are still on the floor!” the relative cried. “Just let me have her glasses!”
The distraught relative quickly left the scene, declining to talk with reporters.
“I’ll never understand this tragedy at all,” Mette’s nephew Aldonis Foote said on Facebook from Peoria, Ill. “You never missed an important moment in my life. I mean never. Always flew 100s of miles to come show love, support in person. [You] always made sure to tell me you love me and to keep going. You played a pivotal part in my life and I’ll always be thankful for you.”
Mette, known as “Zeenie,” was a longtime member of the National Action Network run by the Rev. Al Sharpton. She also owned and operated Momma Zee’s Food to Plez on Adam Clayton Powell . Blvd,, which she said was the first woman and Black-owned bodega in New York City since 1987. The bodega closed down in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The longtime community leader ran food giveaways with the rapper Jim Jones, friends said.
Mette enjoyed cooking soul food for neighbors before opening Momma Zee’s in 2018.
“I always had some little cooking business, usually out in front of the house or from inside the house cooking soul food,” Mette told amNew York in 2020. “My grandmother used to sell dinners out of her home. She was named Excenia, I was named after her. She used to sell food to feed the family. My uncle had a deli in Brooklyn years ago, before I even moved to New York City. It’s a family tradition.”
Business slowed so badly during the COVID pandemic that she made a GoFundMe plea for donations to help her business stay afloat.
“After several years serving food in front her building, Excenia Mette ‘Momma Zee’ decided to spread her love for her community in a more formal setting,” read the post, which collected about $7,000 in donations. “With the horrible circumstances of the COVID-19 crisis, Momma Zee’s is facing a possible shutdown of her Deli businesses.”
AriZona Iced Tea, a bodega staple that featured Mette in a 2019 article about bodega culture, agreed to match donations of up to $25,000, but that ultimately still wasn’t enough to keep the lights on.
Mette’s entrepreneurship ended with a closed store and lawsuits for back rent and money meant to go to the state lottery agency.
The National Action Network is now working closely with Mette’s distraught family, said the Rev. Ronald McHenry, a coordinator at the network’s House of Justice.
“Let this moment strengthen our resolve to continue the fight for real change,” McHenry said. “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.”
Adams reiterated his push for criminal justice reforms when he visited the scene, noting the wounded gunman in custody is a repeat offender.
About 10:25 p.m. last June 12, Smith allegedly stole an e-bike battery from someone he cut in the lower back with a box cutter just four blocks up Lenox Ave. from Tuesday’s gunfight. He also sliced a witness in the thumb, according to prosecutors. He was arrested that day and later released on $10,000 bail. He is due back in Manhattan Criminal Court on May 7 to face robbery and assault charges. Prosecutors had requested he be held on $150,000 bond.
“The case in itself just personifies what we have been talking about over and over again,” Adams said as he highlighted Smith’s criminal record. “This is why, when you hear about removing the names from a gang database, when you hear about the unwillingness to deal with repeat offenders, when you hear about the unwillingness to change our discovery laws, all of these things feed into the continuation of violence in communities like these.”
Later Wednesday afternoon, an emotional vigil was held for Mette out on Lenox Ave., which was still closed off for the police investigation in front of where she was slain. About 50 people were gathered, including family members, fellow community activists and local Councilmember Yusef Salaam.
“My sister was an anchor,” said Diane London, the victim’s sister, who is a pastor in Allentown, Pa., but still lives in Harlem. “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.”
Originally Published: April 23, 2025 at 8:01 AM EDT
