Mother of Bronx Navy vet shot to death in road rage incident promises to face her sons alleged killer in court
The heartbroken mother of a Navy vet allegedly killed by a pair of drag racers in the Bronx said she lost her best friend in Saturday night’s senseless shooting.“My son was like my best friend to me,” Suzette Thomas, 50, said, sobbing.“He’s the one I go to when I’m going through anything.”Keino Campbell, 27, was shot three times in the chest in a road rage incident in the Eastchester section of the Bronx around 2 a.m.
Saturday, after police said he confronted the two motorists who errantly bumped into his car. Thomas, who last spoke to her son around 8 p.m.Friday, was still trying to comprehend his sudden death.
“Why? Why? Why,” she asked in despair, with tears streaking her face. She said Campbell, the third of her six children, was incredibly generous with his time and money, often offering to help out with bills or babysitting a niece or nephew.“When he was in the Navy, he used to send me money and would say, ‘Don’t let the other kids know but I know you need the money,’” Thomas told The Post.
Campbell always appreciated the sacrifices his mother made for him and his siblings, working long hours as a childcare worker, Thomas said.“He’d tell me, ‘Mom, you did this to get us all out of poverty, I don’t want you to live in poverty,’” she said, her voice at times reduced to a whisper by grief. After leaving the Navy, her son planned to attend school in the fall to be an electrical engineer, so he could one day start his own business and take care of his family, according to Thomas.She said her son’s killers are heartless, adding that the fact that her son was shot three times in the chest shows that their intentions were clear. The alleged gunman, Michael Aracena, was arrested just after midnight on Monday.Aracena, a 20-year-old Manhattan resident, was arraigned on charges of murder, manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon in Bronx Criminal Court Tuesday. He was remanded by the court.
His next court date is...