By Adam Kramer
Rene Cruz, who died April 15 trying to save the life of a fellow employee at the EZ Pawn Shop in Harlem, has been called a hero for his actions, but the truth is he was being himself.
The 26-year-old Glen Oaks resident was shot in the neck just 10 days after his birthday by Alex Fernandez, 31, the enraged boyfriend of Juana Castillo, 27, as Cruz tried to calm him down and get him out of the store. After Fernandez shot Cruz, he beat Castillo to death and was shot by the police, the NYPD said.
“It was who he was,” said Cruz’s childhood friend Steve Meurlin. “We did not know what had happened and thought it related to an incident a week earlier, when Cruz chased robbers out of the store. We thought that they came back and shot him.
“It was him,” he said. “He would always help someone if they needed assistance.”
On April 15 at 5:52 p.m., the police said, officers, responding to a call of shots being fired, arrived at the EZ Pawn Shop to find Cruz lying in the doorway with a gunshot wound to the neck and Castillo on the floor in a puddle of blood. Police said Fernandez, of Woodhaven, turned to the officers and fired. The police then shot him in the stomach.
Cruz, police said, died in the ambulance on the way to Metropolitan Hospital; Castillo, who was from Brooklyn, died at the scene; and Fernandez, of 97-38 84th St., also died in the pawn shop.
Meurlin and Cruz had been friends since Cruz, who went by the name Guido, moved from Pennsylvania to the Glen Oaks Village Apartment Complex, off of Little Neck Parkway, 13 years ago. They grew up together and both went to IS 172 in Bellerose and Martin Van Buren High School in Queens Village.
Cruz recently got his degree in gemology and was planning to marry his longtime girlfriend Alysia, Meurlin said. Cruz’s next step was to join his father working in the diamond district. Cruz, he said, idolized his father.
“He wanted to follow in his footsteps,” Meurlin said. “They had the same looks and same mannerisms; he was becoming his father. They even dressed identically.”
Cruz had worked at the pawn shop at 116th and Lexington Avenue in Manhattan for about two years and had helped to get his brother Angel a job there as well.
According to Meurlin, when Fernandez showed up at the shop, Cruz and his brother knew he was up to no good and tried to avert a terrible situation from exploding.
He described his friend as having a neverending smile, and as someone who was sincerely polite and always in a good mood. Meurlin said his parents loved him, not only because of his dark good looks but because he was the perfect kid, never getting into trouble.
“He was my best friend,” Meurlin said. “He was the funniest kid in the world. He even had a stutter, which he even thought was funny. He was just an all-round good guy to be around.”
“What didn’t make him special?” questioned his cousin Mark Davis, 25, who also lived in the Glen Oaks apartments.
“What he did, did not surprise me,” he said about his cousin who he thought of as a brother. “The fact of what happened did surprise me.”
He described his cousin as a real character with a constant smile, somebody who always was joking and always looked for the humor in life. Cruz, he said, never took anything too seriously and had the ability to find a solution to any problem.
“I remember when he first came here from Pennsylvania,” he said. “He had a look, spoke with an accent and dressed funny. He stuck out.
“I would call and say I am coming over; I am hungry or whatever,” Davis said. “He is just not there anymore.”
Reach reporter Adam Kramer by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 157.
