Tiarah Poyau: College student gunned down at NYC festival after telling man to 'get off' her
Tiarah Poyau was a "stellar" 22-year-old college student looking forward to her dream of becoming an accountant. She had a prestigious internship under her belt from PriceWaterhouseCoopers in New York. She also had studied abroad, traveling to Rome, Paris and other European cities. Now, her family and friends have only her past to reflect upon.
“Tiarah wasn’t a girl running around,” a friend of the family told the New York Post. “She wasn’t out chasing boys. She was in school, she lived abroad, she did an internship. She was doing things.”
The St. John's University graduate student was shot in the face about 4 a.m. Sunday in Brooklyn, New York in the after hours of the annual J'Ouvert Festival. She had went to the festival with three girlfriends but they were about 20 feet away from her when a single shot rang out, according to New York TV staton WPIX.
Citing police sources, the Daily Mail reports that Poyau was tired of a particular young man "grinding" on her during the Carribbean festival and told him to "Get off me." That's when he shot her.
Police arrested 20-year-old Regenald Moise and charged him with murder and related gun charges, WPIX reports.
After the shooting, Moise allegedly fled and called a girlfriend, asking if he could hide the gun at her place in Crown Heights. "Would you mind if I put the gun in your apartment?" he told her, police told local media. Once he made it there, police say they have reason to believe he was intoxicated and shot the gun twice more for unknown reasons, breaking a mirror and cutting his hand, WPIX reports.
Whatever the reason. New York Mayor Bill DeBlasio called the gun violence "unacceptable." Friends and family say Poyau was simply a good girl in the wrong place at the wrong time.
"She’s a very pleasant girl. She always had a smile on her face,” Anna Jackson, a neighbor of the family, told the New York Daily News. “She was a good girl from a good family.”
On her LinkedIn page, Poyau says:
"My greatest achievement was in Spring of 2014 when I studied abroad in Paris, Rome, and Seville. Apart from being able to get away for a while, I was given the opportunity to push my limits and be responsible for my personal growth and development journey.
Since, I have used all tools available to me to enhance my professional image. My ultimate goal is to be an accountant at a prestigious firm where I can constantly learn new things and pursue opportunities at firm locations around the world.
I am seeking an internship where I can get real-world experience with new technology, learn to communicate effectively with clients, and challenge my intellectual abilities. I am always interested in meeting new people, hearing success stories, and acquiring helpful bits of knowledge at every chance I get."
A GoFundMe page has been set up by Poyau's aunt to help care for funeral expenses. On the page, her aunt said:
"My beautiful, amazing, sweet, intelligent and wonderful niece, Tiarah Poyau was taken away way too early. Her death is so unfair, unlogical and not right! This can't be! Tiarah lost her life tragically as a result of gun violence. There are no words that will ever make this better or easier. Tiarah is leaving behind a huge void. Her family and friends are devastated."
A separate shooting at the festival also took the life of another young person: 17-year-old Tyreke Borel of the Bronx. No arrests have been made in his slaying.
