On a fall weekday morning in 2015, 53-year-old Michael Matusiak went to his new job at a sheet metal shop in East Williamsburg and confronted three men who were breaking into cars near Grattan Street and Knickerbocker Avenue. Matusiak and a coworker, Derrick Robinson, chased the suspects after they were seen ransacking vehicles, including a white minivan belonging to a coworker. One of the men, later identified as 22-year-old Bryan Aponte of Bushwick, turned and opened fire. Matusiak was struck in the torso and died at the scene; Robinson was grazed on the torso and ear. A 13-year-old girl walking to school was also hit in the hip and would carry the bullet for the rest of her life.

Friends and family remembered Matusiak, known as Mush to childhood friends, as a helpful handyman, a father of two adult daughters and a grandfather who had recently started the job he’d been looking forward to. A makeshift memorial marked the place where he fell; his brother-in-law described the family’s profound loss. If anyone knew Michael, his routines, or saw activity in that Grattan and Knickerbocker area that morning, please share what was seen.