The bomb makers next door: How Astoria neighbors missed warning signs of potential disaster
Residents of a four-story, historic building on a quiet Astoria street said the family on the second floor always seemed odd.
“On one hand, you're like, it figures ‘cause they're not normal,” Heffernan continued. “And then you're scared.” Catherine Sanderson, a professor of psychology at Amherst College, said three main factors may discourage neighbors from getting involved in other people's business — particularly if they’re in an urban setting, where she said research suggests people are generally less likely to intervene.
But that attitude is in direct opposition to the NYPD’s “see something, say something” safety slogan, which encourages New Yorkers to report behavior or objects that seem strange or out of place. Back in November 2021, Beriguete was home in her building on Creston Avenue and on the phone with her sister when she heard gunshots in the apartment upstairs.
The maggots infiltrated much of the building, and Beriguete and her neighbors battled them for weeks while dealing with the trauma of the deaths upstairs. Shannon Ayala spent about four years living across the hall from the family in the only other apartment on their floor. After an early argument with the brothers’ mother, Karen Hatziagelis, about keeping the window opened or closed in their vestibule on hot summer days, Ayala said he made an effort to be nice to the family to avoid problems.
“There was no giveaway that there was something that you had to be suspicious about,” he said. “I never thought so.”
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