Man and son still displaced months after Malta apartment shooting
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MALTA, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- Three months after a fatal officer-involved shooting happened at an apartment complex in Malta, one resident is still left in limbo. The gunfire caused extensive water damage to multiple apartment units leading to dozens of people being displaced.
Nicholas Gerace and his 11-year-old son lived at Ellsworth Commons for about two years before the shooting occurred. Gerace, who is a retired U.S. Army Captain said the morning started off like any other day.
“It started off a typical morning, you know, I woke up I was getting my son ready in the morning, making breakfast that sort of thing," said Gerace.
Gerace said he was taking his son to his doctor's appointment before school that morning.
“When it came time to get going for his doctor's appointment, we were going out and that's around the same time as when the incident occurred," said Gerace.
According to police, suspect Brandon Moore barricaded himself inside his apartment, which was right above Gerace's unit. Moore then allegedly pointed a weapon at officers who then fired and killed him. However, the bullets didn't only hit the suspect.
“When the shots went off, there was so much that it damaged the pipes, the water main it set off the sprinklers. I mean it was just, I don't even know how many thousands or hundreds of thousands of water came down," said Gerace.
Gerace said all of building two was displaced for about two days, and half of the building was displaced for about a week. Gerace's unit and his neighbor's unit had the most damage -- displacing them for more than a month.
“When the police let us up there," said Gerace. "I just grabbed a quick suitcase for me and my son, a couple days worth of clothes and just our hopes and wonder, we didn’t really know what to expect."
Gerace said unfortunately, his apartment was a total loss. They lost everything from furniture to clothes, but the worst loss was their plants.
“One of the reasons I stayed here in Ellsworth was because of the unit I had," said Gerace. "I had a bunch of plants, it was kind of like mine and my son's thing. He called it Plant Nation that's what we used to refer to this place as."
However, only a couple of plants made it out of the damage -- ones that Gerace is still trying to nurse back to full health. Gerace said with his faith guiding the way, he and his son are doing their best to move forward. But they need the community's help.
"Just trying to get through it. I'm being guided by faith, you know, we’re going to church, we’ve had big support from the community," said Gerace. “If you can either send a donation we got the GoFundMe going or we’ll take prayers too and just good energy, good vibes."
For the last three months, Nicholas and his son have been staying in a hotel. Yet, with the help of a friend they're hoping to upgrade to a home in the next few weeks. Anyone interested in donating to the GoFundMe can find the page here.