To young too die:( Rip-Mittens&Jessica
Written at 7:59 a.m. on 2004-12-30
I am feeling a little tired this morning.There was a party last night,but not your typical party this one was a little diffrent. It was a Rap tribuite to a young man named Matthew "Mittens" Macerato who was a local music producer.
Sunday night he and a co worker were closing the store they worked at,when someone come in the store and shot them both.
This was a little hard to deal with,he is the little brother of my friend. The next few paragraphs are from the newspaper,please read it and if there is anyone out there that can help please do.
Thank you,
Shannon
Men's store slayings investigated
Victims shot during robbery, police say
By TERRI SANGINITI / The News Journal
22-year-old Jessica M. Watson, a hard-working single mother with a 2-year-old daughter, was promoted to first assistant manager at the Casual Male Big & Tall men's clothing store on Kirkwood Highway.
Matthew J. Macerato, 18, a soft-spoken rap music producer, just started working at the store part-time about two weeks ago.
The two employees had worked together Sunday and were closing up shortly after 6 p.m. when they were shot and killed during an armed robbery at the business, state police said.
When Watson failed to return home by 7 p.m., relatives said, her older sister, Anitra, who lived with her, grew worried.
She tried unsuccessfully to reach her sister by calling her at the store and on her cell phone.
At 9 p.m., Anitra Watson decided to drive from her Wilmington home to the specialty clothing store at 3924 Kirkwood Highway, near Milltown.
She arrived to find her sister's blue Honda still parked in the front lot and the front door of the store locked.
"The rear door was partially opened, and the sister entered the store and saw the victims lying on the lower level in close proximity to each other," state police spokesman Capt. Tim Winstead said.
An autopsy conducted Monday at the state Medical Examiner's Office determined each of the victims had died of gunshot wounds, state Department of Health and Social Services spokeswoman Carolee Kunz said.
Police declined to reveal the number of wounds or the caliber of the weapon used in the double slaying. They said the day's receipts were missing from the store.
Homicide detectives spent Monday interviewing other store employees trying to piece together the events that led to the killings, the sixth and seventh that Delaware state police have investigated this year.
Police also canvassed nearby businesses hoping to retrieve surveillance tapes that might help them identify the killer or killers.
"It was an unnecessary waste of life," Macerato's father, Gene, said Monday afternoon as he picked up his son's BMW in the store's parking lot.
The public left bouquets of flowers on the victims' cars, abandoned in the lot. A visibly tired Macerato took the roses left for his son, got in the car and drove away.
Winstead said detectives tracked down the man they believed was the last customer of the day through the store's receipts and interviewed him.
"The customer indicated that he was let out of the building by the employees, who locked the door behind him," Winstead said.
As he left, one customer was still in the store, he told police.
The man vaguely described the customer as a tall, heavy-set white male with the back of his head shaven.
"He didn't get a detailed look," Winstead said.
Investigators would now like to interview that man.
The store was closed Monday.
Wally Sprague, vice president of human resources for the Massachusetts-based Casual Male Retail Group, said company officials were shocked.
"It's an unbelievably terrible tragedy," Sprague said. "Our priority is to provide the families with support and help them as much as we can as well as the other store associates who were their colleagues."
Sprague said the company has experienced situations such as robberies or break-ins at some of its 500 stores nationwide, but no loss of life.
"We will do whatever we can to provide support to police to solve the crime," said Sprague, who said the company has already supplied detectives with information on former employees.
Winstead said detectives do not know whether more than one assailant was involved in the slaying.
There was no sign of a struggle, and no sign that the employees were ambushed while taking out the trash.
Authorities said the day's receipts included a substantial amount of money but would not say how much.
Brenda Wilson, Jessica's aunt, said her niece was from the Milford area and had attended Milford High School.
"She was very fun-loving, bubbly and very creative," said Watson, adding that her niece had worked at Casual Male for about a year. She said the family was devastated.
Andrea Smulski, the fianc�e of Macerato's older brother, Gene, said Matthew had recently accompanied them and more than three dozen friends on a holiday cruise to the eastern Caribbean.
"He started his job the week before we left," she said. "We got back the week before Christmas."
She said her future brother-in-law was godfather to her 17-month-old son, Anthony, and was going to be best man for his brother at their Aug. 13 wedding. He spent Christmas at her Bear home with his nine nephews and one niece.
"He was just a really good kid and didn't have any enemies," Smulski said. "He was really big into his music and produced the beats for rap music for the group Third World."
"His mother called him the classic son," Smulski said. "He had all these hopes and dreams and somebody took them away from him."
Anyone with information on the case is asked to call homicide detectives at 739-5939 or Delaware Crime Stoppers at (800) TIP-3333.
Staff reporter Murali Balaji contributed to this article. Contact Terri Sanginiti at 324-2771 or [email protected].
