MANHATTAN -- Three months after her only son was gunned down at a video shoot in Brooklyn, working as a bodyguard for rapper Busta Rhymes (right), Luce Ramirez wants just one request fulfilled.
“I want to know who killed my son, that’s the only thing I want,” Ramirez said as her eyes welled with tears. “Who killed my son?”
Ramirez’s son, Israel Ramirez, 29, was one of many working in the rapper’s crew as they filmed a video at a Greenpoint location for Rhymes’ remix of “Touch It,” when at about 1:30 a.m. on Feb. 5, eight shots were fired.
On his first day back on the job after a three-week hiatus, the father of three young girls was struck once in the chest. He died a short time later at Woodhull Hospital.
Now, as the three-month anniversary of her son’s death approaches Friday, Ramirez, 60, wants answers.
Why has Rhymes -- a Brooklyn native whose real name is Trevor Smith -- ignored public requests by NYPD Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly to discuss the slaying?
“I don’t know what happened,” Ramirez said. “I don’t know why my son is dead and why Busta doesn’t want to talk. The police say nobody wants to say nothing.”
Just prior to Ramirez’s wake, Rhymes issued a statement through his attorney, Robert Kalina, in which he called “Izzy” one of the “rare friends” he could “trust with [his] life,” and assumed responsibility in laying the “devoted husband” and “loving father” to rest.
Aside from that statement and a feature in the June issue of XXL magazine, Rhymes has been largely mum on his friend’s death. When asked why he hasn’t cooperated with police, Rhymes told the magazine: “This man’s life — his name, his legacy, who he was — is not going to be misconstrued by the agendas that really don’t have the same value for this man’s life the way we do ... And I have to consult with a team of people that advises me in the most appropriate manner necessary.”
Both Kalina and Greg Miller, Rhymes’ publicist at Interscope Records -- presumedly among that team of advisors -- declined to comment.
Last week, while announcing an indictment in a separate case, Kelly said the investigation into the shooting is “still very much active” despite Rhymes’ refusal to contact detectives.
“We’d like anyone with any information to come forward, including Mr. Busta Rhymes,” Kelly said.
Ten days after Ramirez’s death, Kelly said it was “quite disturbing” that Rhymes wasn’t talking.
“No one has come forward, no one has volunteered to be questioned in this matter,” Kelly said on Feb. 15. “And I find it quite frankly, quite disturbing. This individual was shot in front of a lot of people.”
One of those witnesses, Kelly said, was Rhymes and possibly several other hip-hop stars on site, including Missy Elliot and Tony Yayo of G-Unit, who has also refused to talk about the shooting.
“This is an employee who worked for [Rhymes] and he was, we believe, present at the scene when this happened,” Kelly said. “So we want to know everything that he knows about this homicide.”
A spokesman at the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office said an investigation is “ongoing,” but declined to discuss the possibility of selecting a grand jury to order Rhymes to testify.
Meanwhile, Ramirez said Rhymes personally called her daughter in the days after Israel’s death, but the call was neither accepted nor returned. There’s nothing to talk about.
“I don’t want to talk to him. I no want money, I want to know who killed my son. That’s it.”
JOSHUA RHETT MILLER
*AN EDITED VERSION OF THIS STORY RAN IN THE NEW YORK METRO. TAKE A LOOK: http://ny.metro.us/metro/local/article/Who_killed_my_son/2385.html
