Massacre survivor faked death - ran for help

A plastic-wrapped telephone directory addressed to Sonia Taylor rested on the porch of 116-31 225th Street in Cambria Heights just to the left of a worn, green and beige doormat. The mat’s greeting faced into the home, as if to welcome those who once lived there into the outside world.
Cops believe that on Wednesday, April 18, 20-year-old Jimmie Dawkins shot his mother, Sonia Taylor, 44, her companion, Arnold Lawson, 47, and Lawson’s home health aid, Syndia Jean-Pierre, 28, before turning the gun on himself.
“It’s a quiet neighborhood, that’s why I moved here,” said Cherif Sahi, who said that he had moved next door to the family about one month ago and did not know anything about them.
A number of others in neighboring homes said they did not know the family and were unable to comment on what might have happened that day.
At 3 J’s Restaurant at 223-15 Linden Boulevard where Taylor and Lawson often ate, they were “a very happy family,” proprietor Joyce Reynolds said. “They come every morning for breakfast and then watch the cricket,” she said, “It’s the World Cup, you know.”
The only survivor of the shooting spree, Lawson’s 21-year old nephew Laurice Johnson, who was visiting from the island of Jamaica, escaped from the home and ran into Reynolds’ restaurant for help after being grazed by a bullet and pretending to be dead inside the closet he hid in.
“He came in screaming for help,” Reynolds said, describing the barefoot young man. “I said, ‘What happened? Are you bleeding? Are you okay?’”
“[Dawkins] was always by himself. I saw him walking with another guy once,” said Monica of Boston Jerk Palace and Restaurant at 224-15 Linden Boulevard, who asked that her last name not be printed. Monica said the family moved to Cambria Heights from the Bronx about two and one half years ago and often bought jerk chicken from her.
Monica said she often saw Taylor waiting at the bus stop in front of the restaurant on her way to work as health aid. When it rained, “She got all wet there before she even got on the bus to go to work. She was a very hard-working woman,” she said.
“He was a normal kid, like that little boy there, when he just moved over here,” from the Bronx, said Monica while gesturing at a boy who waited patiently at her Formica counter to pay for a bright yellow pineapple-flavored soda.
After visiting the island of Jamaica last July, Monica said Dawkins’ disposition changed. “Something went wrong in Jamaica,” she said. She later added, “He used to love his mother, he used to respect his mother.”