Krystal Bayron-Nieves was prepared to do no matter it took for a sliver of the American dream.
The 19-year-old Puerto Rico native even labored a dreary late-night shift at an East Harlem Burger King — regardless of telling household about her worry of crime within the neighborhood — hoping to scrape collectively sufficient money to assist her mother pay the payments and afford nursing college.
She even hoped there could be sufficient left for a automobile and a trip to Cancun, family and friends instructed The Put up.
As a substitute, her life was cruelly taken final week throughout a brutal gunpoint theft that shocked New York — and now her mates and family are left to recollect a life that may have been.
“She wished to vary for the higher,” her pal Narielys Figueroa stated at Krystal’s wake in Manhattan this week. “She wished to work to get cash, to get a automobile. She wished to go to school to check nursing. She wished to journey the world.
“She was a tough employee,” added Figueroa, 16. “She appreciated to work. She appreciated cash. And, you understand, she stored hustling.”
Krystal, who shall be laid to relaxation in Puerto Rico on Saturday, a day after her funeral, moved from the island territory to the US mainland to stay along with her mom and youthful brother six years in the past, her household stated, hoping for a greater life within the Huge Apple.
“Her mother labored, busted her butt, and her daughter began working to assist her mother pay payments and stuff like that,” stated cousin Melissa Quiles, 40. “And that is what occurred.”
Police stated the teenager was working the night time shift on the fast-food eatery Saturday when a person got here in round 1 a.m., brandished a gun and demanded cash.
Her household says there was solely about $100 within the money register.
Police stated the armed robber pistol-whipped one man, slugged the feminine supervisor, and, as he was leaving, turned and fired at Krystal, mortally wounding her.
Cops later charged Winston Glynn, a 30-year-old homeless former worker of the restaurant, with homicide within the teenager’s capturing loss of life.
“This can be a tragedy that ought to not have occurred. It’s so simple as that,” household legal professional Sanford Rubenstein stated Wednesday.
“The opposite challenge is how did a person who apparently was homeless and who was apparently affected by psychological sickness get a gun?” Rubenstein requested. “That’s a problem that we now have to handle as properly.”
Krystal had complained concerning the late-night shift, fearing for her security in a neighborhood peppered with vagrants, her household stated.
Her mother instructed The Put up she nonetheless feels responsible that she satisfied her daughter to stay it out and go in to work on the day she was killed.
“[Kristal] say, ‘I don’t need to go. I’m scared,'” grieving mother Kristie Nieves recalled final week. “I say, ‘You must go and be accountable.’ At 10 p.m. I wake her as much as go and inform her, ‘You must go. You must be accountable. You must get a greater life.'”
At her daughter’s wake this week, Nieves was so distraught that she fainted.
For Krystal, the capturing derailed what appeared a promising future.
The teenager had earned her highschool equivalency diploma about 4 months earlier and was working with a pal to fill out faculty functions to check nursing.
She was athletic at a younger age, an avid swimmer who was additionally prolific at fencing, incomes a number of medals in competitions in Puerto Rico, her household stated.
After her loss of life, her former fencing group issued an announcement on Fb.
“Sadly right now the fencing of Quebradillas and Puerto Rico wearing mourning for the tragic loss of life of Krystal Bayron Nieves,” the submit stated. “You're a warrior and as your coach, I used to be at all times very proud and instructed you so.”
Her grandmother, Margarita Montalvo, recalled the teenager as “a cheerful, affectionate lady.”
Krystal beloved her cooking, significantly her Sancocho, a conventional Latin American soup, Montalvo instructed The Put up.
“One time she known as me,” the grandmother stated. “Her mother was working. She wished to make camarones al ajillo” — garlic shrimp. “She stated, ‘Tita, how do you make this?’ And I gave her the directions and he or she instructed me it turned out nice.”
A GoFundMe.com web page has raised almost $44,000 for Krystal’s household, however they stated no quantity will heal the loss.
“It seems like a nightmare,” stated her cousin, Miguel Montalvo, 39. “Prefer it’s not even actual. So, we’re simply leaning on one another simply to manage, nevertheless it’s robust.
“We have been simply all collectively for New Yr’s,” he stated. “My aunt got here down from Puerto Rico. You already know, all of the household was collectively. So, it was a joyous event.
“And it’s simply, it’s a devastating blow,” he stated.
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