Even after fleeing to Florida, Hakeem Griffin couldn’t escape the old neighborhood.
Even after fleeing to Florida, Hakeem Griffin couldn’t escape the old neighborhood.
The former Queens resident, back home Wednesday for a friend’s birthday, was fatally slashed by a machete-wielding maniac outside a Corona pizza parlor, police sources said.
A former neighbor of Hakeem Griffin, 22, recalled how the slain man’s mom fought to keep him clear of trouble as her third child grew up in the neighborhood.
“His mother took him away from here for a different life,” said a 46-year-old neighbor named Cee Cee. “Then he comes back here and that happens to him. It’s sad… His mother raised him well.”
A street memorial for Griffin sprang up Thursday outside Vinny’s Pizza and Pasta as word of his brutal slaying spread through the neighborhood.
More than 50 candles flickered on the sidewalk alongside two framed photos of the young man known to friends as “Keem.”
Bouquets of pink roses and red carnations were placed near a poster board filled with messages from the victim’s pals. “RIP KEEM,” read a red poster at the memorial site.
“He was supposed to go home (Thursday), he was just up here for a birthday party with his friends,” said Cee Cee, who once lived next door to the Griffins. “These are his best friends. He grew up around here.”
She recalled Griffin as a young basketball player whose mother moved the family to Florida a few years back — taking his two brothers and one sister along with them.
The murder suspect remained on the run Thursday after pulling the machete as he argued with Griffin around 8 p.m. Wednesday, police said.
Griffin died at Elmhurst Hospital shortly after police found him bleeding from wounds to the neck and chest outside the pizza joint, police said.
A witness spotted a man, dressed all in black and with his face covered, fleeing the scene, cops said.
Neighbor Cee said she was shaken by a photo of the slain young man taken after his high school graduation.
“I got chill bumps just looking at it,” she said. “I just want them to catch the person that did it.”
