The victims in the Chinatown murder last month are not forgotten. One church held a memorial service for them, and the community still mournfully puzzles over the reason for one of the most horrific quadruple murders in New York City’s history. A question continues to echo through the streets, Could we have done more?
At 2AM on the Saturday of October 5th, security cameras show that a homeless man snuck up on four others who were sleeping on the sidewalks near Chatham Square. He mercilessly killed them. Their names are:
Anthony L. Manson, 49;
Chuen Kwok, 83;
Nazario Velazquez Villegas, 54; and
Our Chinatown church, Grace Alive Fellowship, wanted to make sure that they were remembered to God and the rest of the community. These were men who were known, though often passed-by, and even loved by many.
A service of remembrance
On the evening of October 11, 2019 just around the corner from where the attacks occurred, Grace Alive Fellowship (GAF), held a memorial service for Manson, Kwok, Villegas, and Moran Comano. We want to share the news of it with you this Thanksgiving.
Our church knew Chuen Kwok or “Kwok Sang” (as he was known through another, now-shuttered local church). Then, we realized that the congregation had also met Anthony Manson on the streets and he often visited a church. A shocked awareness turned into a conviction that we should hold a memorial service that would honor all of our neighbors and create a physical space of remembrance for those in mourning and grief.
Although there was a community vigil organized by local Assemblywoman Yuh-Line Niou and a moving funeral service for Cheun Kwok crowdfunded by a few Chinatown organizations and generous community folk, our congregation also wanted to add to the assurances that their neighbors would have a good send-off and not be forgotten. There also continues to be a need for time of local neighbors to fight grief, anger, sadness, confusion.
Elizabeth Leung read our church’s recognition of our deceased neighbors:
“We have gathered to give names to the unknown, to acknowledge and remember our neighbors and to honor the lost lives of Mr. Kwok (quiet & humble), Mr. Manson (compassionate & polite), Mr. Villegas (wonderful & beloved) and finally our unknown friend, who we now know as Mr. Moran Comano.”
Remembrance started with the naming of the names and continued until their memories were written in the heart.
“And in doing so, we make the unknown, known — we get a glimpse of who they were, how they lived. We acknowledge the importance of their lives and remember in our hearts, so they are remembered and would not be forgotten.”
During the service, members held a simple moment of silence for all to remember the lives lost, then opened up the mic for anyone who wanted to share their reflections.
As community members shared during the open mic, a sense of loss grew. Though we might not have personally known the four men, they were our neighbors. This sentiment spanned the feelings of bearing the loss of a dear friend to sensing a gap in our everyday life on the streets of Chinatown. Our community is agonized by the lost trust of safety on the streets and the lostness of four neighbors who would never grace the Chase Bank corner, the Chatham Square Library, or the benches in Kimlau Square.
As part of our Christian tradition, we wanted to walk with our community and uplift Anthony, Kwok, Nazario, and Florencio’s humanity and personhood, in addition to acknowledging the collective trauma that the Chinatown and greater community is now impacted by. The memorial is only a fixed moment in time where we were able to honor our neighbors with our words, silence, music, tears, and memories, but this will not be the end.
What caused these men to end up on the streets of Bowery, East Broadway and Kimlau Square; what led the assailant to harm these men; who were these men; and why is homelessness a continuing crisis across our city? Questions like these continue to haunt Chinatown residents.
Promises to keep
May we continue to move forward in fighting for the dignity of the human beings around us, especially those experiencing homelessness. May we not be so arrogant to think that we cannot learn from them. May we sit in their living room on the streets to see the world from their perspective, befriend them, and care for them.
Our community continues to remember our four neighbors. There was a birthday memorial dinner at one of Kwok’s favorite restaurants. We ate the duck dish that he would order and shared our memories and stories of his life. The feeling grew that his struggle at life was inspirational.
Author Bio
Symphony Chau (she/her) manages communications and PR for a nonprofit at building healthy communities through the lens of public health, urban planning, real estate, & the built environment. In her free time, she is the Liturgy vertical editor for Diverging Magazine and writes poetry + life musings at cheers to the mess. She is part of the leadership team at Grace Alive Fellowship, a grassroots church plant in Chinatown, Manhattan.
Sidebar: Continuing reflections
Kenny Wong remembers sharing “dim sum” on Sundays at church with Anthony Manson whenever he came to town during good weather. The African American homeless guy dressed well and was often in Trust in God Baptist. During the break between Sunday school and worship service, the congregants would often take the opportunity to get a quick eat. Wong remembers that Manson would usually get a pork bun or a plate of ngau cheung (beef rice noodle rolls).
Manson had a technique to maximize the taste of the noodles. He would methodically lift up the bottom of each noodle roll to pour in soy sauce so that it would evenly soak into the dish, a sure sign of someone who knows how to eat this snack.
A retired federal law enforcement officer, Wong says, “I don’t break bread with just anybody. Manson also shared a quality with any good beat cop — he knew where all the good, cheap places to eat were, the old-school Cantonese places that serve such satisfying food.”
Manson’s family told the New York Times that the victim was a preacher who had started two nonprofit organizations in Mississippi that conducted outreach to the homeless.
Wong laments, “Could I have done anything for Manson?”
Chuen Kwok: Why an 83-Year-Old Man Found Himself Homeless in the Twilight of His Life
It is a very long way from his native Hong Kong. When he came to the United States is unclear. He was undocumented.
Those closest to him here, like his pastor, had few details.
“I wish I had known him more, but it’s just the fact that, you know, I figured he must have had such a long story. So I never tried to get into it,” said Pastor Billy Yip.
Yip would see Kwok at church. He saw him the night before he died, stopping briefly where Kwok usually slept to slip some cash in his hand.
“You know, when I left him, his eyes. That’s the thought that came,” Yip said. “Of course, in that sense I miss him. I mean, life is like this. Only when things pass, only then do we wish we had done things differently. I really wish I would have stayed longer, talking to him more. I think, by the look, he cherished relationships.”
Yip says Kwok was not always homeless. He lived with a woman in Chinatown, who friends called his wife.
“I can see that he loved his wife dearly,” Yip said.
When she fell ill and died some 15 years ago, Kwok began to struggle.
“He basically lived at his wife’s apartment. So, because he was undocumented, I think that employment, a job, wasn’t stable,” Yip said. “He was working here and there. I believe the financial condition wasn’t that good.”
By that time, he was already in his 60s. He had a tough time finding work. He turned to the streets, and to the shelter system.
Peter Smith is a volunteer at the New York City Rescue Mission, located just blocks away from where Kwok was killed.
“So, I dialed up the Chinese translator on my Google translator, and that’s how I communicated with him. I would ask him questions and the phone would say it in Chinese,” Smith told NY1.
Kwok would come to the mission for a warm bed, one of dozens set aside for single homeless men.
“He was such a sweet man, a great sense of humor. He was always laughing,” Smith said. “Everyone here, all the staff, they had a special feeling for him. They knew this is an 83-year-old man who is homeless. He walks with a cane, very slow. He was a little guy, under five feet.”
For the last months of his life, it appears Kwok opted for the streets, no longer looking for a bed inside.
Sometimes, he was found at the same spot he was killed. Now, of course, he’s interred forever 60 miles south of the Bowery.
Controversies on the Chinatown murders
From the NY Post: “A Baptist church just steps away from where four homeless men were savagely murdered wanted to hold a forum on mental health issues, it asked City Hall for help.
First lady Chirlane McCray’s signature ThriveNYC program seemed the right place to provide mental health assistance for the community, said Keisha Hogans, a member of Mariners Temple Baptist Church and the community activist coordinating the forum.
Hogans found the opposite. “Clueless,” is how she described the reps of the program that has cost taxpayers $850 million so far.
“Well what do you mean? What do you want us to do?” she said Thrive reps told her. …
The Rev. Henrietta Carter, the senior pastor of the church — which provides clothing to the homeless and hosts a food pantry — said assistance from the city would have been valuable.
“Help us help them,” Carter said. “What do we need to know?””
NYU anti-bail non-profit freed Chinatown ‘killer” after he attacked a court officer
From the NY Post: “The Chinatown vagrant accused of fatally bludgeoning four other homeless men was sprung from jail not once but twice by misguided nonprofits pushing bail reform, court documents show. ….The student-run nonprofit’s mission, according to its website, is to end cash bail — and until then “subvert the cash bail system by bailing out as many people as possible.””
Shelter chaos drives many homeless to live on streets and in subways
From The City: “On Nov. 5, a homeless man allegedly fatally stabbed another homeless man outside an East Elmhurst, Queens, shelter. Four days later, a similar killing took place inside an Upper West Side shelter. … The internal reports depict life inside 30th Street as teetering on the brink of anarchy at times. … “The 30th Street Men’s Shelter has the worst reputation of any men’s shelter in the city,” said Josh Dean, director of Human NYC, a non-profit homeless support group. …” The Chinatown murderer had been kicked out of several city shelters for violent behavior.
