Memorial Held For Deloris Gillespie, Brooklyn Woman Burned Alive In Elevator
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A memorial for Deloris Gillespie was held this afternoon in Brooklyn.
The 73-year-old died on Dec. 17 after police say she was doused with gasoline and set ablaze in the elevator of her Prospect Heights apartment building.
Jerome Isaac, 47, is charged with murder and arson. He is being held without bail. Prosecutors say Isaac cornered her in an elevator in her building, sprayed her with gasoline, then lit her on fire because he believed she owed him $2,000.
Gillespie's family says she'd been trying to help Isaac, but fired him because he was stealing from her. He reportedly told police that Gillespie owed him thousands in back pay.
Thursday, Gillespie's grieving family spoke out and were hardly able to contain their anger.
"For someone to sit there and set someone on fire…a 73-year old mother – set on fire that's ridiculous. I mean what is this country coming to?" said Gillespie's son, Everett Haynes.
"You hear and read about stuff, but it's a different story though when it happens to you," the victim's brother, J.C. Causey, added.
"No one deserves what happened to her, my God!" said niece Tracy Gillespie.
Today's memorial was held at the First A.M.E. Zion Church in Bedford-Stuyvesant. Harlem's Unity Chapel funeral handled the ceremony.
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