Dead man found dismembered outside Brooklyn apartment building was ‘not violent’: family
The man found dead and dismembered outside his Brooklyn apartment building was remembered Saturday as a loving, nonviolent man who looked forward to his next birthday, the Daily News has learned.
Darrell Montgomery, thin and just 5 feet tall, was a gentle soul who would turn 34 next month, his heartbroken mother told The News Saturday as she wept openly outside her son’s apartment building in Flatbush, just steps from the blue trash bin where his chopped-up body was found.
“I was going to take the train and they called me and told me (what had happened),” said the mother, who wished to remain anonymous. “I passed out on the train.”
Montgomery’s family lives out of state. As soon as they learned what had happened, they showed up at the victim’s apartment building, located on E 21st Street near Ditmas Avenue, but the officers guarding her apartment on the sixth floor were unable to share anything with them.
“My son was a loving son,” the mother said. “He stays alone and he hasn’t bothered anyone.”
Montgomery’s head and torso were found in a black plastic trash bag in the blue bin shortly after 9 a.m. Friday.
“I think it’s a dream,” said Shakeema, Montgomery’s younger sister, who did her best to console her mother at the scene. “I was reading this article (about this murder) yesterday and I didn’t know it was about my brother.”
Construction workers discovered the dismembered remains outside the building after smelling a foul odor, police sources said.
Cops immediately cordoned off Montgomery’s apartment to search for more evidence, but it was not immediately clear whether any other body parts were found inside.
On Saturday, police could not immediately confirm the identity of the victim. The remains were taken to the city medical examiner, who will conduct an autopsy and officially identify the victim.
Neighbors told police that Montgomery lived with a much larger man, possibly her boyfriend, before the victim’s body was discovered.
About 6 feet 3 inches tall, the roommate towered over Montgomery, neighbors said. The victim’s family said they never met the roommate.
Neighbors said the couple had lived in the building for a few years and moved in shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic ended.
The two were always together, a 54-year-old resident said, noting, “Where you saw the big, you saw the small.”
A 75-year-old neighbor recalled seeing Montgomery’s roommate outside the building on Thursday, a day before Montgomery’s body was found.
The cops were looking to question the roommate. No arrests have been made.
“He was just a sweet person,” Shakeema said of her brother, “family oriented.”
She hadn’t spoken to him in over a month, she admitted.
“I remember my brother picking me up from school,” Shakeema remembers fondly. “He wasn’t violent at all – so for this guy, he must have been intimidating my brother.”
“Honestly, I want justice,” she said. “My brother wasn’t violent.”
