The New York Post reported over the weekend that the mother of a teen killed at the Alfred E. Smith Houses last year has filed a lawsuit against the city.
On Sept. 26, 2015, 19-year-old Nathaniel Szeto was fatally shot in the lobby of a building at the Smith Houses, near Catherine Street and South Street. A couple of months later, cops arrested 15-year-old Johnny Molina of Sparrowbush, New York. He was charged as a juvenile with murder. Another suspect, 19-year-old Alexandros Lorentzos, was arrested just last month and charged with murder and robbery.
A lawsuit filed in state supreme court by Phanessia Liao, Szeto’s mother, argues that shoddy security at the public housing complex was partially to blame for her son’s murder. The suit cites pre-existing “broken, dangerous, hazardous and defective” conditions in the building, including faulty locks. The inadequate security, “allowed trespassers, other unlawful persons, and/or persons intent on committing crimes and/or violence” access to Szeto’s home, the lawsuit alleges. Liao is seeking unspecified damages. City officials declined to comment.
Szeto worked as an assistant in a Lower Manhattan legal office.
