Wake held for Kevin Mares, Queens man fatally shot while visiting Puerto Rico
FLUSHING, Queens (WABC) -- A wake is being held on Saturday and Sunday for a man from Queens who was fatally shot while visiting Puerto Rico for a Bad Bunny concert.
Family, friends and loved ones will gather at the Frederick Funeral Home in Flushing for the wake of 25-year-old Kevin Mares.
Saying goodbye is never easy, and it has only gotten harder for friends of Mares, who remember him for things that just can't be replaced.
"He was always the shoulder to cry on. Always had words of wisdom," said his friend, Arda Yazici.
Yazici was friends with Mares since grade school. He watched him pursue his dream of becoming a veterinarian and plan an engagement to his longtime girlfriend. He never expected the next time he would see him would be at his funeral.
"He was the one guy the whole group would look up to you know?" Yazici added.
On Friday, authorities arrested Kalel Jorell Martinez Bristol, 37, in connection to the deadly shooting and charged him with first-degree murder.
The 25-year-old was among the expected 500,000 surge of visitors traveling to Puerto Rico amid Bad Bunny's sold-out 30-concert residency, titled "No me quiero ir de aquí."
Investigators say Mares was with friends in the neighborhood of La Perla, an infamous settlement on the outskirts of Old San Juan's protective sea wall, when a group started arguing.
The heated discussion escalated when Martinez Bristol allegedly shot and wounded two people and fatally struck Mares, who had no relation to the altercation, according to Eric Ortiz Rodriguez, investigating agent of the Homicide Division of San Juan.
"It's very sad that people -- some people come to this world to hurt others. He doesn't even imagine what he has caused to our family. We just hope that God forgives him. We will forgive him as well because everyone deserves you know, forgiveness. But yeah he hurt so much the family," said Lilian Saenz-Mares, the wife of Mares' godfather.
Eyewitness News spoke to Mares' parents, who had been working to fly their son's body back home for his funeral.
"They were walking, and then across the street, it was like a bunch of bunch of people, arguing and they start fighting each other. So one of them, they took out a gun. So he starts shooting, like random," said his mother, Sandra Mares.
The family is most concerned about how they will get back and forth to Puerto Rico to attend court hearings for the suspected killer, but first they have to get through a difficult few days -- including Monday's funeral.
Martinez Bristol is currently being held on $800,000 bond. He is due back in court on August 28.
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