Man killed in Brooklyn shooting was budding fashion designer: ‘He had a lot of life left to live,’ family says

The tearful family of a Brooklyn shooting victim gathered Thursday to mourn the man who dreamed of breaking into the fashion world after launching his own clothing line.

“He has the biggest heart,” said the victim’s grieving mother, Mirta Rivera. “Of my four children, he was the most affectionate. He was very, very funny.”

Salvador (PJ) Martinez, 27, stopped to chat with friends after picking up something to eat at a bodega just outside the Marcy Houses on Marcy Ave. near Park Ave. in Bedford-Stuyvesant when gunfire erupted around 7:45 p.m. Wednesday, police said.

“This guy came and just started shooting and he ran down the block,” said Martinez’s aunt, Eliza Ortega. “(The friends) said he just started shooting at the crowd.”

Police responding to an alert from the city’s ShotSpotter system found Martinez on the pavement with a gunshot wound to the torso.

He was taken to Kings County Hospital, but he could not be saved.

When she learned of her son’s death, Rivera fainted before she was able to begin wrapping her head around the murder.

“I’m just praying to God for the strength,” she said. “He was too young, too young. I never thought this would happen.”

Martinez spent most of his life at the Marcy Houses but had recently moved to the Kensington section of Brooklyn. He often returned to the neighborhood to visit with friends and family.

When his mother was unable to care for Martinez as a child, Eliza Ortega took him in for several years and raised him as her own child.

“His aunts loved him very much from his mom’s side,” Ortega said. “He had two wonderful families that loved him very much. His mother allowed us to take care of him. That was our child.”

Rivera, thankful the woman stepped up to raise her son, told the Daily News that Ortega and Martinez became very close when the boy moved in with her and her family.

“He was like my son,” Ortega agreed. “I always tell him you’re my firstborn.”

She last saw Martinez about a week before he was killed.

“We were just always talking about the past and how much fun we used to have,” Ortega said. “Just a lot of great memories. I just loved taking him places because he had never been to so many places.”

The woman reminisced on trips to amusement parks and zoos when Martinez was still a boy.

“He just got raised in such a happy home,” Ortega added. “He was a very happy, happy person.”

As he got older, Martinez got involved in sports and music. In his early twenties, he became interested in fashion and started his own clothing line.

“He was passionate about his clothing line,” Ortega said. “He started rapping in high school. He had shows and we would go to the shows.”

So far this year, eight people have been killed in Bedford-Stuyvesant’s 79th precinct, according to the most recent data released Sunday.

“They need to stop the violence,” Ortega lamented. “The pain that they leave behind is unbearable.”

Martinez’s cousin echoed the sentiment, referring to the slain man as her “partner in crime.”

“It’s just scary,” Alyssa Ortega said of the violence. “You never know when your last day is. You can be walking and not know when your last breath will be. They really don’t know the damage that they’re doing to the families.”

The new mother recently moved her family upstate after spending most of her life in the city.

“I’m glad that I’m not raising a child here,” said Alyssa Ortega. “I don’t have to look over my shoulder, stay away from the windows, hear gunshots at night.”

Police have not yet made any arrests in the murder.

“These young people hurting each other is senseless,” Martinez’s heartbroken mother said. “You never expected it to be your loved one. I’m just lost for words.”