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Tearful Vigil for Murdered 21-year-old Pace Student Max Moreno

By Julie Shapiro | September 30, 2010 12:08am | Updated on September 30, 2010 6:36am

By Julie Shapiro

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

FINANCIAL DISTRICT — A candlelight vigil in memory of a murdered 21-year-old Pace University student drew more than 250 people to the plaza in front of the school's downtown campus Wednesday night.

Max Moreno’s stricken friends remembered the Pace senior as a happy, humble person and said they were shocked by his sudden death less than 24 hours earlier.

Moreno was shot in his apartment at 2 Gold St. early Wednesday morning, immediately following a drug deal, according to police sources.

But his friends said he never looked for trouble.

"He was an absolutely great kid," said Amanda Tarthalia, 20, whose cousin was dating Moreno. "I don’t know one person who has anything bad to say about him."

Max Moreno with friends several years ago.
Max Moreno with friends several years ago.
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Tarthalia began to cry as she added, "If anyone was upset, he was the one to make you happy. He was pretty much part of my family."

Moreno’s brothers at the Pace fraternity Zeta Beta Tau organized Wednesday’s vigil, distributing candles, flowers and photos, which students wore around their neck on ribbons. One student's laptop blasted "Forever Young," while another computer scrolled through photos of Moreno with his arms slung around his friends.

"He was more than a brother — he was family," a leader of Zeta Beta Tau's Pace chapter told the gathered crowd. "You never think something like this is going to happen to you. You can’t even describe it."

Students set up makeshift shrines to Moreno using the candles and flowers. One young man knelt before the flames, hands clasped and head bowed. Others scrawled messages on the plaza in front of Pace in blue and yellow chalk.

Zaccary Belliveau, a Pace junior from Yonkers, said Moreno always appeared happy and eager to make other people smile.

“His jokes were random — corny but still funny,” Belliveau said. “Anything to make you laugh — even if he looked like a fool, he would do that.”

After nearly two hours of gathering in tearful near-silence, Moreno’s fraternity brothers huddled and chanted the fraternity name, then invited the crowd to the nearby Beekman Pub to raise a glass in honor of their friend.

Police sources said Moreno had just sold marijuana to a couple inside his 37th floor apartment around midnight when two men burst into the apartment brandishing guns.

The men demanded money, and after Moreno refused, they attacked him. The intruders then forced the victim into the bedroom, where they shot him, police sources said.

Witnesses said they saw two intruders fled the building with a box of some sort, sources said. The contents of the box is unknown.

Moreno was transferred to Bellevue hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival, police said.

Police are still searching for the gunmen.