On Valentine’s Day 1993 an execution-style shooting in a Prospect Avenue apartment in the Mott Haven section of the Bronx left six people dead, including 17-year-old Edwin Santiago. Among the other victims were his mother Julia Santana, 49; his sister Maria Santana, 26; and family friends Miguel Rivera, 23; Annette Medina, 17; and Christopher Hernandez, 15.

Authorities determined the killings were carried out in retaliation after Santiago had assaulted Anthony Casellas’s wife, Lourdes. Casellas was identified as the planner and, with four accomplices — Luis Ramos, Eliot Lopez, Luis Romero, and Edgardo Rosado — was arrested and charged in connection with the massacre; one of the men later admitted to killing Edwin Santiago.

Ten days after the murders Lourdes Casellas was shot and killed in the lobby of the Bronx County Courthouse; Gilberto Ortiz, described as a friend of Edwin Santiago, was arrested and charged in that killing. The planners and perpetrators of the apartment killings were later convicted and received lengthy prison terms, and a civil suit found the building landlord partially liable for inadequate security and ordered multimillion-dollar damages to the victims’ families.