Here's the story :3d_frown:
By LAUREN STANFORTH, Staff writer
First published in print: Monday, February 22, 2010
SCHENECTADY -- Uneesa Ally appeared to be made of stone Sunday.
Her eyes were not puffy and red from hours of sobbing. She gave her young daughter a cracker to eat and orchestrated an apartment filled with family members delivering countless bags of groceries.
But one glance at a photo of her husband, killed over the weekend on a dead-end street in the Vale neighborhood, and she turned away, biting her quivering lip.
"I have a 20-month-old who sees me and asks, 'Mommy why are you crying? Where's daddy?,'" said Ally, whose husband, Ganesh Ramgoolam, was gunned down after getting out of a car early Saturday morning on Maple Avenue. "I have to be strong."
Schenectady police have released few details about the killing, which is the city's first homicide this year. Police spokesman Sgt. Luciano Savoia said Ramgoolam, 24, was shot five times outside a car he was riding in on Maple between Hawk and Eagle streets around 2 a.m. Police said there were reports that a dark-colored SUV left the area immediately after the killing.
To Ally, 25, and Ramgoolam's extended family, his death is a shock based on the man they knew -- a mechanic for the Capital District Transportation Authority, who spent more time working on his beloved 1989 Toyota Supra in the backyard than going out with friends.
"He's such a loving person. I don't know that he has any enemies," said Ally, a stay-at-mom who also has a nine-month-old son.
Ally said she spoke with the driver of the car, a friend of Ramgoolam's, who said the two were making a U-turn at the dead-end of Maple Avenue when a dark-colored SUV blocked their vehicle. She said her husband was out with friends that night, but she has no idea why they were in that neighborhood, which is a block from State Street. According to the friend, who Ally only knows by a first name, her husband got out of the car, and the driver of the other vehicle got out. She said she doesn't know how much time passed, but allegedly the driver of the vehicle began to shoot at Ramgoolam. The driver then walked over after Ramgoolam who was down and shot him in the head, Ally said.
The friend told Ally he stayed in the vehicle to protect himself, and the SUV sped away. Ally rushed to the scene after her husband's friend called her.
She said she yearns to see her husband's body which has not been released yet after an autopsy was performed at Albany Medical Center Hospital.
Members of Ally and Ramgoolam's extended family traveled this weekend from New York City to be with her and Ramgoolam's mother, who lives downstairs in the couple's two-family house in the Mont Pleasant neighborhood with Ramgoolam's younger brothers, ages 12 and 4.
They all want the same thing: answers.
"Why? I don't get it," said Ramgoolam's mother, Roopmanie Girdharry. "Why did they do that to him? He's a family man."
Ally and Ramgoolam moved to Schenectady from the Bronx in April 2006. Ally, whose parents are Guyanese, was born in the U.S. Ramgoolam immigrated with his family to this country as a young boy.
Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/ASPStories/Story.asp?StoryID=903399&LinkFrom=RSS#ixzz0gtM8uOrG
By LAUREN STANFORTH, Staff writer
First published in print: Monday, February 22, 2010
SCHENECTADY -- Uneesa Ally appeared to be made of stone Sunday.
Her eyes were not puffy and red from hours of sobbing. She gave her young daughter a cracker to eat and orchestrated an apartment filled with family members delivering countless bags of groceries.
But one glance at a photo of her husband, killed over the weekend on a dead-end street in the Vale neighborhood, and she turned away, biting her quivering lip.
"I have a 20-month-old who sees me and asks, 'Mommy why are you crying? Where's daddy?,'" said Ally, whose husband, Ganesh Ramgoolam, was gunned down after getting out of a car early Saturday morning on Maple Avenue. "I have to be strong."
Schenectady police have released few details about the killing, which is the city's first homicide this year. Police spokesman Sgt. Luciano Savoia said Ramgoolam, 24, was shot five times outside a car he was riding in on Maple between Hawk and Eagle streets around 2 a.m. Police said there were reports that a dark-colored SUV left the area immediately after the killing.
To Ally, 25, and Ramgoolam's extended family, his death is a shock based on the man they knew -- a mechanic for the Capital District Transportation Authority, who spent more time working on his beloved 1989 Toyota Supra in the backyard than going out with friends.
"He's such a loving person. I don't know that he has any enemies," said Ally, a stay-at-mom who also has a nine-month-old son.
Ally said she spoke with the driver of the car, a friend of Ramgoolam's, who said the two were making a U-turn at the dead-end of Maple Avenue when a dark-colored SUV blocked their vehicle. She said her husband was out with friends that night, but she has no idea why they were in that neighborhood, which is a block from State Street. According to the friend, who Ally only knows by a first name, her husband got out of the car, and the driver of the other vehicle got out. She said she doesn't know how much time passed, but allegedly the driver of the vehicle began to shoot at Ramgoolam. The driver then walked over after Ramgoolam who was down and shot him in the head, Ally said.
The friend told Ally he stayed in the vehicle to protect himself, and the SUV sped away. Ally rushed to the scene after her husband's friend called her.
She said she yearns to see her husband's body which has not been released yet after an autopsy was performed at Albany Medical Center Hospital.
Members of Ally and Ramgoolam's extended family traveled this weekend from New York City to be with her and Ramgoolam's mother, who lives downstairs in the couple's two-family house in the Mont Pleasant neighborhood with Ramgoolam's younger brothers, ages 12 and 4.
They all want the same thing: answers.
"Why? I don't get it," said Ramgoolam's mother, Roopmanie Girdharry. "Why did they do that to him? He's a family man."
Ally and Ramgoolam moved to Schenectady from the Bronx in April 2006. Ally, whose parents are Guyanese, was born in the U.S. Ramgoolam immigrated with his family to this country as a young boy.
Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/ASPStories/Story.asp?StoryID=903399&LinkFrom=RSS#ixzz0gtM8uOrG
