Michael and Marcel Brea

Yesterday morning I was helping a friend locate his mom who had been missing for 5 days, and last night I've been praying for another friend who has killed his mother. My heart goes out to the Brea family for their loss, this tragedy, and the confusion they both, Michael and Marcel, must be dealing with at this hour.

I've known Michael and Marcel Brea since high school, better acquainted with Michael than I was with Marcel. Michael was just the more outgoing twin, always friendly, always smiling, always cracking up. He and I both worked in the Dean's office back then..I was a peer mediator for the Dean and well I think Michael just liked to hang out there.. lol

The twins were always dressed to impress in school, lots of girls liked them and of course our ignorance led us to believe they were Hispanic, not Haitian. They never caused any trouble in school as far as I can remember and everyone definitely knew who they were.. you would definitely call them popular.

After High School everyone went their separate ways until one day I'm sitting in orientation for a new job at Citibank and Michael is sitting across the room from me in 2002. Of course once seeing someone you know in an unfamiliar setting automatically makes you feel more at ease. Michael and I had been hired to work in the same department and had gotten the same shift. For almost a year he and I took turns car-pooling back and forth to work. We both lived in Brooklyn and worked in Melville Long Island. I didn't have a car then so he drove the majority of the time picking me and another girl up in his 1970/80 Benz and driving us home daily.

I will never forget, one day Michael wanted to go to a check cashing place so we stopped somewhere on the North Conduit. On the back of his drivers license was a photo booth sticker picture of him and his current girlfriend. Our other co-worker and I were like awwwwww that's soo sweet Michael.. he told me she was a student at Hunter College.. Co-incidentally at the time so was I, so the next day I had class and made it my business to find and introduce myself to his girlfriend.

After leaving Citibank we've only spoken 2 times, once while he was working at Pri-America and once while he was at Geico.

I know that this tragic incident is one that will have everyone looking at Michael like some deranged psycho killer and I probably would be the same way if I didn't know him personally, but for all the years I knew Michael in HS and the all the times we were car-pooling back and forth driving those hour long drives each way to and fro Long Island this is nothing I could have ever even seen coming. I don't even think I've ever seen Michael angry.  From what I know of him, this is totally out of character for him, but you can never know the depths of someone's temper if you've never seen them angry.

People are always so quick to judge, the comments that I have seen in relation to his story have been sooo disgusting. I can't even believe how ignorant people are, he wasn't some psycho immigrant who always had the potential to be a killer, like what?! He was a chill dude, always hustling hard to make money, Citibank, Pri-America and Geico were all low salary plus commission jobs, and he had the gift of fab so he did well.

Despite the crime committed all I'm saying is that this is someone's brother, someone's uncle, and someone's friend. I don't know what made Michael snap and neither do any of you..

I'm lifting his family up in prayer today, Michael, because he needs it right now and his twin Marcel because he must be in a whirlwind of confusion at this situation, at the end of it all Michael is still his twin brother....

xoxo
Carrie Pink