Families

Glenn Lau-Kee, an attorney representing 40-12 Main Street Realty, and the sites new owner, Ben Wong, said an $18,000 check will be presented to the Flushing Library to fund an after-schoool program. Wong is the owner of two Chinese take-out restaurants called Wok & Roll, one at LaGuardia Airport and a second at Kennedy Airport
Lau-Kee said a private service for the families will be held first followed by the public event, noting that the survivors wanted to avoid contact with the news media. The latter ceremony will include talks by Borough President Claire Shulman, District Attorney Richard A. Brown and a representative of the Mayors office.
The attorney for the new owners said they decided to delay renovation of the Wendys site for a new mini-mall until sometime in June, after the anniversary of the shooting. Lau-Kee said restaurants or any store involved in cooking would be barred from the mall "out of respect" because of the Wendys shooting spree last year.
The memorial service comes at a tense moment for the families of the Wendys victims. They were shattered last January when one of the killers, Craig Godineaux, 30, was spared death by lethal injection because state psychiatrists ruled he was mentally retarded. The law prohibits execution if the defendant is mentally ill. According to the District Attorneys office, the second alleged gunman, John B. Taylor, 36, will face trial and, if convicted, could be executed. Brown has vowed to seek the death penalty if the jury finds Taylor guilty.
The families seek closure as in the case of the survivors of the Oklahoma City bombing who will be permitted to watch Timothy McVeigh die on a closed circuit televisison hook up.
The crime spree last May 24th shocked the nation. It was described in detail in New York State Supreme Court in Kew Gardens by Assistant District Attorney Gregor L. Lasak in low, almost mournful tones. He said the seven victimsfive of them shot deadwere bound, gagged and blind folded with duct tape, their heads covered with plastic bags, and shot one-by-one as they knelt in a basement freezer. Two of the victims survived the massacre. They were Patrick Castro, who was shot in the cheek, and JaQuione Johnson who survived severe wounds.
Taylor and Godineaux were charged with 25 counts including five of first degree murder each. In a brief court hearing last May in the cramped criminal court building, Lasak took only 10 minutes to recount the crime as family members of the victims listened in horror.
One of the survivors, Benjamin Nazario, brother of the slain Ramon Nazario, collected his thoughts after the funeral and told The Queens Courier: "We were trying to get him out of there. Sometimes he didnt get home until three a.m. and there was no security outside to help them walk home
Ramon Nazario was married and had a 23-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, and three-year-old son, Ramon Jr. Both his wife and mother were hospitalized when they heard the news of Ramons death.