A 23-year-old man fatally shot on a Brooklyn street was an avid baseball player in the Dominican Republic — but started hanging out with “bad friends” after immigrating to the U.S. only to lose his job here, the victim’s family told the Daily News.
Wilky Vladimil Toribio Perez was shot in the left shoulder on Pine St. near Etna St. in Cypress Hills around 2:25 a.m. Aug. 10, police said.
The victim, who was a pitcher, was known as the top player on his team when he played ball in his native Dominican Republic, his family said. But his baseball dreams were derailed when his dad temporarily left him behind to immigrate to New York.
“He was one of the best,” said the victim’s 29-year-old stepmother, who gave her name only as Kirsy. “But when his father came here, he was sad. He stopped playing.”
And so four years ago Toribio Perez followed in his father’s footsteps and came to New York to live with him.
Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News
Police investigate the shooting on Pine Street in Brooklyn on Aug. 10. (Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News)
Toribio Perez was from the coastal city of Puerto Plata. He was nicknamed Mil Seteciento because of how fast he rode his bike.
He quickly settled into a routine in New York, staying some of the time with his dad in Cypress Hills not far from where he wound up being killed.
“He used to come [home], take a shower, eat something and go out,” his stepmother said.
Toribio Perez worked as a security guard at a parking lot but lost his job a few months ago, the family said. After that, his father noticed his son began hanging out with “different friends.”
“He used to be a good boy but he got bad friends in the last months,” the victim’s father, who gave his name only as Toribio, said in Spanish. “I’m very very hopeful for the police [to find the killer] … I need justice.”
“He was a very ambitious young man,” he added. “He was a baseball player there (in the Dominican Republic) and he didn’t (continue with) his baseball career because I came to the United States. He felt abandoned.”
Toribio Perez had a Kawasaki Ninja motorcycle he would frequently ride, doing tricks and racing. The motorcycle disappeared hours before the victim was killed, leaving his dad to wonder if whoever took it was involved in the slaying.
Medics took Perez Toribio to Brookdale University Hospital but he could not be saved.
No arrests have been made but cops are looking for two men who fled the scene on a moped.
“I really loved him and he really loved me,” the victim’s sister Gissell Toribio, 25, said. “We were so close. He was my favorite brother. I want the person that did this caught.”
Toribio Perez was one of two men killed citywide in a spate of shootings over a bloody six-hour span that also left eight people wounded.
Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News
Shell casings are marked on the street as police investigate the shooting on Pine Street in Brooklyn on Aug. 10. (Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News)
In the 75th Precinct that covers Cypress Hills, 34 people have been shot this year through Aug. 10, compared to 35 victims during the same timeframe last year. There have been nine homicides in the precinct this year compared to seven by the same point last year, NYPD stats show.
Citywide, there have been 530 people shot this year through Aug. 10, a historic low and a 22% drop from the 678 victims by the same point last year. The city has seen a record low 188 homicides this year through that date, compared to 246 by this time last year, a 24% drop.
