Horrible Father's Day

Another tragic story. I will refrain from any deep editorializing here but I would like an opinion from our readers. Is this another case of hyper-masculinity gone awry by a man of color? Another child left fatherless due to senseless beef? Or is this a structural/societal problem? Share your thoughts. The article is courtesy of today's NY Daily News:

Dad's day horror

He's fatally shot after deli feud but scrambles home for last look at baby

BY MIKE JACCARINO and ERNIE NASPRETTO
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

Tuesday, June 19th 2007, 4:00 AM


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Germaine Persaud cradles his baby girl Diniah in family photo at Queens home.

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A 22-year-old single dad who had just celebrated his first Father's Day was gunned down outside his Queens home early yesterday - but managed to run inside to get a last glimpse of his baby girl.

Germaine Persaud used his final moments to hug his parents and stumble into his bedroom, where 11-month-old Diniah Destiny was sleeping in her crib.

She was the last thing Persaud saw before he dropped to one knee, collapsed into his father's arms and died, cops and relatives told the Daily News.

"I heard three shots and saw him running up the steps with blood coming out of his mouth," said sister Crystal Persaud, 27. "He went to mom's room. Every time something happened he went to my mother. He always looked for my mother to save him."

But mother, Cheryl, and father, Vernon, could only watch in horror.

"My mom said he tried to tell her something, but she couldn't tell what he was saying," said sister Margaret Persaud, 31. "My parents were in bed. He went over to his dad and said, 'They shot me.' The blood was gushing really fast."

The shooting stemmed from an earlier confrontation in a nearby deli, cops and family said, when Persaud and two cousins got into a staredown with two unknown men and exchanged angry words.

They thought it ended there - but minutes later, the men showed up at the Persaud family's home on 192nd St. in St. Albans.

"You got a problem with me?" said the taller of the two, a black man in his 20s wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and a red bandanna, before firing at least six shots at Persaud, his cousins said.

Family members insisted Persaud did not know the shooter or his shorter stocky friend. Cops were questioning two men yesterday, according to family members and a police source.

Persaud emigrated from Guyana with his family when he was 4 years old, his family said.

They said he worked full time for his father's company, VCG Trucking, and was also an aspiring filmmaker who started a company called Hollyhood DVDs, which taped local rap artists and sold the videos to area stores.

But his first love was the daughter he was raising as a single father, his sisters told The News.

"He really loved [Diniah]. He'd bathe her. He would spend the whole day with her," said sister Margaret, a fashion designer.

He got a "World's Best Dad" picture frame as a Father's Day gift on Sunday, and spent the whole day cradling his baby in his arms, she said.

But that night, he went to a nearby party with cousins then stopped at the deli on their way back home after midnight. Persaud went inside to grab some hamburgers, the cousins said - and when he stepped outside at 12:50 a.m., the armed thug was waiting.

"He wanted to have the world," sister Crystal said as her family mourned her youngest sibling.