Update (December 4, 2018): Wendy Martinez, who was shot and killed in her Bronx apartment by an unknown gunman, will be buried in the Dominican Republic.
According to the New York Daily News, the 45-year-old's eldest son, Brian Solano, will not be allowed to attend her homegoing services. Solano handed his passport over to the authorities as part of an agreement that allowed for his release from jail.
As PIX 11 reports, the 25-year-old spent three years in a New York prison awaiting trial; he stands accused of having murdered a member of the Trinitarios gang. It is believed Martinez could have been slain in retaliation for this murder. This is one reason she will be buried in the Dominican Republic; family members think the services will be safer that way.
Solano maintains he is innocent, and a private investigator unearthed evidence that allegedly proves witnesses were coerced to fingering the young man in the gangster's death.
A hearing in the case began Monday; when Martinez was mentioned in the courtroom, Solano reportedly became inconsolable, crying so much that even the prosecution was moved, passing him tissues to dry his tears. As he left the courtroom, he told reporters he was feeling, "not good right now."
The hearing will continue through this week. Martinez' killer has yet to be found.
Original: A Black mother's intuition saved her son from a deadly fate.
Saturday, Wendy Martinez's 15-year-old son, Alexander Angulo, went to answer the doorbell in the apartment they shared in the Bronx. According to the New York Daily News, the mother stopped her son and told him she would answer the door instead.
However, when the 45-year-old looked through the peephole to see who was at the door, she was fatally shot in the face.
“[Her son] was there with her at that moment,” Angulo's godmother, Karla Rodriguez, told the New York Daily News. “He was going to open the door, but she said, ‘No, I’ll go open the door.’ That’s when she got shot in the face.”
After witnessing the gunshot, the 15-year-old frantically called 911. However, first responders were unable to save his mother.
Rodriguez told the New York Post Angulo is now just "trying to hold it together.”
It isn't clear who killed Martinez, although authorities suspect the gunman may have been trying to kill her oldest son, Brian Solano, who was charged with the 2014 murder of a member of the Trinitarios gang. Solano was set to attend a hearing in the case Monday, but it was delayed due to his mother's death.
The family has hired private investigator Manuel Gomez to find the killer. As PIX 11 reports, Gomez is believed to have contributed to Solano's freedom. His investigation into the young man's murder case turned up allegations of witness coercion and evidence that seemed to suggest Solano is innocent. Because of this, the young man was released from custody in 2017.
Rodriguez believes her friend's death could be linked to the woman's eldest son. She said she specifically recalled a time 15 people waited outside of a courtroom during Solano's hearings, threatening her and Martinez with violence and retaliation.
"I'm gonna pray for him day and night," Rodriguez said of the anonymous killer. "He won't be able to sleep; he won't be able to eat. He's gonna turn in himself, or someone will turn him in."
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