Kaiim Vieira was born in a Brooklyn hospital 18 years ago today. He grew into a six-foot-two teen who had a knack for getting folks to laugh even when they didn’t want to. He used to call his mother by the nickname “Muffin.”
A week and a half ago, Kaiim was shot 10 times and killed after an altercation on Fulton Street in Brooklyn. It was less than three miles from where his own father was gunned down 14 years ago.
"My son became another statistic, and that was something I said he would never be,” said Kaiim’s grief-stricken mother, Iasia Tyre, through tears.
Since Kaiim’s death on September 14, his large extended family has banded together at his aunt’s apartment in the Gowanus Houses to make arrangements, stay on top of the police investigation and, more than anything, comfort each other. A big part of that has been sharing stories about Kaiim.
Tyre, 37, said her son, who was known for his goofy dancing and joke telling, got his sense of humor from his father.
“We went out to eat one time and [father and son] were sticking candy in their nose,” she recalled. “The two of them -- doing the same thing.”
In March 1998, their joyous days abruptly ended when Kaiim's father, Trevor, was shot and killed by an acquaintance in the East New York section of Brooklyn.
Kaiim was 3-years old and didn’t understand that his father was dead.
"He would ask me every day, ‘Did daddy wake up yet? Did daddy wake up yet?’" Tyre said, admitting that she was filled with guilt that Kaiim had to grow up without his father.
Tyre went back to school to get her Master's degree to better her family’s life and get them out of public housing in Queens. She began working for the Administration for Children’s Services, the city agency that aims to protect the city’s kids from abuse and neglect.
(Photo: In this family photograph, Iasia Tyre, a proud mother, looks dreamily at her baby boy Kaiim. Courtesy of Iasia Tyre)
But she said trying to teach her own son about surviving painful episodes like getting beat up was the most challenging job. Tyre said the cruelty of the streets caught up with her son and he started to get in trouble.
He had a knife pulled on him and had a tooth chipped in fight by the time he was in high school, she said.
Tyre drove Kaiim to and from school, met with teachers, counselors — and eventually judges — but everything she tried ultimately failed to protect him.
“I'm supposed to save people's children but I couldn't save my own,” said Tyre, her voice cracking. “And that hurt. And I tried. I tried.”
Tyre vows to move to Maryland to give Kaiim's younger brother a chance to grow up far from life-interrupting violence.
“I give myself two months and I'm leaving,” she said. “I refuse to raise another child in NYCHA. I refuse to raise another child in New York City."
Tyre is planning to visit her son’s gravesite at Rosehill Cemetery in Linden, N.J. today.
She’ll be releasing 18 balloons in honor of Kaiim’s birthday.
Kathleen Horan is a staff reporter for New York Public Radio, covering the criminal justice beat. She also reports the series In Harm’s Way, a multi-platform effort to profile the life of every child in New York City killed by gunfire.
Comments [21]
I am so sorry for Kaiim's family. We are failing the residents of NYCHA. I don't know the answer. But to lose two generations in one family, from gun violence shows a systemic problem that can't be tackled by one determined mom.
It sounds like she did everything she possibly could to do right by her son. But in the end, you can't control the world that your children will live in. That's not the responsibility of one mother, it's the responsibility of all our city residents.
New York City has become for some residents a Newtown in slow-motion. I hope this series can do something to bring the death of these kids into the fore of people's minds.
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This is Trevors brother,I'm sorry to hear about the loss of my nephew an the sad part is I never knew I had a nephew named Kaiim.
He didn't deserve to go so soon not like this but I love you Smiddy r.i.p people always ready to pull out a gun I guess that's how they was going to defend there self cause they know you were a fight :* I love you so much bestfriend
Let's not pretend that merely presenting tearjerking stories and having people cry over them is the answer. The problem is that there is such an uproar over "stop-and-risk" because it "targets minority youth." It is misguided and misplaced to pretend that gang violence and street crimes do not happen in the neighborhoods that certain people want to keep the police out of. It hurts people who have to live in those ghettos and housing projects to not have any kind of surveillance over what is happening on street corners and outside of schools or buildings. Would it have been worse if this young man had been stopped and frisked , or at least questioned, than getting shot by gangs or getting caught up with them?
I know what muffin is going through i been in her shoe i loss my son three years ago at the age of 17 over a gun shot the pain does not go away but in due time it will ease down because i talk to god an ask him to help me get through this. If it wasn't for my daughter i dont how i would have made it. I love and miss my son so much if i can turn the clock around just to see him again i would. They have to stop with these guns an get them off the street because i wouldn't want to see nooooo mother lost their child over guns. Please we have to stop this foolish killing each other. I will continue praying for muffin and her family because i feel her pain god look ove her like u do with me give her strength to move bless her heart an keep her strong in the name of jesus Amen. SIP Kaiim
I know the mother of the slain young man Kaiim. Ms Tyre and myself attended high School together and I always hear great stories about her son. I am truly sorry for her loss. She is a great mother and I pray she has comfort in knowing that he is in a better place. R.I.P. Kaiim!!
Thank you WNYC and Kathleen Horan for bringing this tragic yet achingly beautiful story to myself and my family. We appreciate it so much and know firsthand how close the call is that "it could have been one of us" as my teen son travels to high school in Newark, NJ daily.
Kaiim and his mother are deeply affecting people and the grief over this loss is both told and sensed so intensely and poignantly. Here was a diligent,industrious mother sacrificing and striving to raise a well-loved, grounded and happy young man, only to see all the potential evaporate in an instant. How ? Why ?
What happened to everything we used to be? How can these tragedies have become the coin of New York's realm? Are we so hardened in our hearts against our children?
Who can say what to do to rectify these circumstances?
My deepest sympathies to the family and my best wishes as you bear this
anguish. I hope your memories of the years that you were blessed to have your beautiful and joyful son comfort you. My family and I are praying for you.
Thank you for sharing this story.
Heard this story this morning and I cried; I lived in Brooklyn and could not take all the "excitement" and moved to Jersey because I wanted the best for my only son. Kaiim mom is a tropper and getting out is the best thing she can do. My heart goes out to the family.
So incredibly heartbreaking.
Jesus Christ! So sad. RIP little one. My heart goes out to Mom and the rest of the family!
I have a nephew, who's two years old. His father's not in the picture, so it's up to me to be a role model to him and steer him away from bad elements, let alone bad people.
So very sad :( Heartbroken for the family Kaiim leaves behind and for their tremendous loss, twice. Happy Birthday Kaiim, wherever you are... hopefully with daddy now. Hugs and condolences for Iasia and her family.
This is a remarkably important series. Just when I think WNYC cannot get any better. It does. Bravo.
Poor lady, she has aged beyond her short 37 years. My heart breaks for this family.
May he rest in peace
What a beautiful boy and a tragic, horrifically sad story. My deepest empathy goes to Miss Iasia and her family- both for the loss of Kaiim and his father...my son is 3, worships his father, I can only imagine the family's pain in that loss- and now the loss of Kaiim. If positive thoughts from strangers help- I hope the Tyre's will feel me thinking of them as they celebrate Kaiim life today, work through their grief and move forward to Maryland. All the best to Miss Iasia!!!
This story made me cry. Cry for the waste, and the loss. Guns, violence, drugs corrode neighborhoods, families and take lives.
WNYC, please continue this series. New York City, please force this series to be unnecessary.
Thank you for doing this important series. It reminds us that every person is uniquely and infinitely precious, and that anyone's suffering should affect us all.
The NRA, Mitt, and specially Ryan do not want their guns taken away. While "recreational" shooters fight for their right to bare arms, other have to fight against not wanting gun in their neighborhoods, but unless all give up their WEAPONS, nothing will get done. The production of fire arms is a HUGE business, so unless a very large percentage of the population reaches out and make their support for gun control heard, nothing will change and more children and innocent people will continue to die.
Something needs to be done about gun in this country and world. Its too easy to get one and use it. I am not condoning fighting but in the years before all these gun violence and weapons, you fought with your hands and you won some and you lost some, but you lived to see another day. With guns there no thinking, you pull the trigger and walk away. This very sadden to hear a young man looses his life when its only just beginning.
Heart breaking.
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