A punch from nowhere, and Michael Daniels' rough life ends in a senseless beating

5-30-2013 New York:

With a cold Bud Ice in his plastic bag and change for the bus, Michael Daniels was good to go last Thursday night.

A two-block walk to the bus stop, a short ride across town to the North Side and he could call it a day. He had mowed his former landlord's lawn on West Brighton Avenue earlier, which had left him breathless.

Daniels never made it to the bus. He left that corner in an ambulance, beaten senseless by a group of youths, at least one of them appearing as young as 10 years old. Daniels died a day later.

Police have made no arrests and they say they don't know the attackers' motive. Daniels was not robbed.

The killing in front of Los Amigos Grocery has people in the neighborhood shaken.

Some have since come into the store and mentioned the May 23 ambush as a version of a street game called "knockout," in which an attacker tries to knock out an unsuspecting victim with one punch, said Joe Brown, the son of the store's owners, Ruben and Marjorie Colon.

In an old city neighborhood of rundown houses, churches, schools and storefront social service agencies, Los Amigos sells lottery tickets, cold drinks, chips, canned goods and household essentials.

Residents bemoan the neighborhood's decline. One resident said teenage girls conspicuously carry knives as they walk through the neighborhood, and children ask to be driven a block to school for safety.

The Colons have run Los Amigos and lived above it for 35 years. They've foiled multiple robbery attempts. Ruben Colon has twice shot thieves. The store has had a reputation as a safe zone.

"In this neighborhood, my father is the police," Brown said.

They never had a homicide near the store until last week, they say.

What's most troubling is the age of the attackers. The Colons have long been wary of young people, chasing them away when they loiter in front of the store, not allowing them inside if they swear or are disrespectful. But the age group that has been a nuisance appears to becoming a more serious threat.

"We'll risk our lives to protect this corner," Brown said. "This store is my parents' life."

On his last night, Daniels stood at the corner in front of Los Amigos, at West Brighton Avenue and Cannon Street. He prepared to light a cigarette. A light rain fell. It was just past 9:30 p.m.

The first blow struck Daniels on the side of his head, a witness said.

Daniels staggered and looked around. There was no one in front of him. The kid who threw the punch was young, maybe 10 or 12, and had lunged from the side to strike Daniels, according to a witness who gave a statement to police.

Daniels stood 6-feet, 1-inch and weighed 240 pounds, according to arrest records.
The kid and four other teenage boys ran across the street and stopped to look back at Daniels.

Then a taller kid in a red hoodie, the hood tied close around his face, and the kid who threw the first punch ran back toward Daniels. The smaller kid waved back the others, a witness said.

When the two reached Daniels, the bigger kid in the hoodie started swinging.

Three punches and a kick dropped Daniels to his knees, broke his glasses and left him sprawled on the sidewalk, said Joe Brown, who says he saw the attack from an upstairs window.

Brown says he yelled at the kids, who ran down Cannon Street. Still in Daniels' hand was the crumpled change from the $10 bill he used to buy the 75-cent beer.

Inside Los Amigos, Ruben Colon was ringing up customers. Someone ran in to tell him a man was down on the sidewalk. The man was calling for Colon by name.

Colon knew Daniels' face but not his name. But Colon has run Los Amigos for 35 years and faced down robbers at least three times with his own weapons, so anyone who's lived in the neighborhood knows him.

Brown stood over Daniels. A woman was yelling at Daniels: "Wake up!" Colon saw a police cruiser coming down Brighton. He ran to the street and waved it down, he said.

Daniels, 51, of 405 E. Division St., died the next evening at Upstate University Hospital. He had multiple skull fractures, police say. Police would not talk about any progress, only saying the investigation is "very active."

Police also say the attack was unprovoked. So without an arrest, the kids' motivation remains a mystery.

Brown was asked if he thought the youths were motivated by race. The attackers are black, police say; the victim was white.

"Black people are attacked in this neighborhood, too," Brown said.

Daniels, while recently a north sider, knew the neighborhood where he died. He last lived in the Brighton area in 2005, said his wife of 30 years, Mary Louise McIntyre Daniels.

Daniels had grown up on Shonnard Street. His father was Irish, his mother was Mohawk, McIntyre said.

The last time she saw Daniels was the previous night. When she awoke Thursday morning he had already left to visit their old landlord, Frederick Czeizinger on Brighton, 10 doors from the store, she said. Daniels called her after mowing Czeizinger's lawn and he sounded out of breath.

The next time she saw him was at the hospital. He was on life support.

Mary Louise Daniels hopes to have a funeral for her husband at St. Lucy's Roman Catholic Church, in the neighborhood where he grew up.

Their decades-long relationship had been stormy and sometimes violent, she said. He'd left her and returned multiple times. With her he fathered three children who were all raised by foster parents, she said. With three other women he fathered five other children, she said.

"We went through thick and thin together," she said.

Daniels had gotten by on public assistance and odd jobs, she said. He had multiple arrests and served at least two prison sentences, according to state prison records. The first was in 1992 for 3rd degree attempted burglary and 2nd degree bail jumping; the next was in 2001 for third degree rape involving a 14-year old girl and for aggravated criminal contempt.

Daniels was a registered sex offender at risk level 3 - the highest.

On a table in the North Side apartment they shared was a photo album of children that she and others had born by Daniels. She couldn't find a photo of him.

"Maybe it's good he's laid to rest," she said. ..Source.. by Dave Tobin