The man found dead and dismembered outside his Brooklyn apartment building was remembered Saturday as a loving, non-violent man who was looking forward to his upcoming birthday, the Daily News has learned.
Darrell Montgomery, slender and just 5-foot-4, was a gentle soul who was going to turn 34 next month, his heartbroken mother told The News Saturday as she wept openly outside her son’s Flatbush apartment building, just steps from the blue trash bin where his hacked-up body was found.
“I was going to the train and they called me and told me (what happened),” said the mom, who wished not to be named. “I passed out on the train.”
Montgomery’s family lives out of state. As soon as they learned what happened, they showed up at the victim’s apartment building on E. 21st St. near Ditmas Ave., but the cops guarding his sixth-floor apartment weren’t able to share anything with them.
“My son was a loving son,” the mom said. “He stays to himself and he didn’t bother nobody.”
Montgomery’s head and torso were found in a black plastic garbage bag in the blue bin just after 9 a.m. Friday.
“I’m thinking this is a dream,” said Montgomery’s younger sister, Shakeema, who tried her best to console her mother at the scene. “I was just reading this article (about this killing) yesterday and I didn’t know it was my brother.”
Construction workers discovered the dismembered remains outside the building after smelling a foul odor, police sources said.
Cops immediately cordoned off Montgomery’s apartment to search for more evidence, but it wasn’t immediately clear if any other body parts were found inside.
Cops on Saturday could not immediately confirm the victim’s identity. The remains were brought to the city Medical Examiner, which will conduct an autopsy and officially identify the victim.
Neighbors told police that Montgomery was living with a much taller man, possibly his boyfriend, before the victim’s body was discovered.
At about 6-foot-3, the roommate towered over Montgomery, neighbors said. The victim’s family said they had never met the roommate.
Neighbors said the pair had lived in the building for a few years, moving in soon after the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The two were always together, a 54-year-old resident said, noting, “Where you saw the tall one, you saw the short one.”
One 75-year-old neighbor recalled seeing Montgomery’s roommate outside the building on Thursday, a day before Montgomery’s body was found.
Cops were looking to question the roommate. No arrests have been made.
“He was just a gentle person,” Shakeema said about her brother, “family-oriented.”
She hadn’t spoken to him for more than a month, she admitted.
“I remember my brother picking me up from school,” Shakeema recalled fondly. “He was not violent at all — so for this guy, he had to intimidate my brother.”
“I honestly want justice,” she said. “My brother was not violent.”
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