A Bullet Tears Through a Ceiling, and 2 Lives

A Bullet Tears Through a Ceiling, and 2 Lives
By KAREEM FAHIM and NATE SCHWEBER
Published: August 15, 2008
NEWARK — On Thursday morning, two young men were in their bedrooms, safe and separated by only a ceiling.

In the apartment upstairs, Bukhari Washington, 15, had just gone to sleep. At work at the local recreation center the previous day, he and four friends had practiced lip-synching New Edition’s “Candy Girl” for a coming talent show. After work, he and his best friend, Daquan Cuttino, shot hoops and went to see the latest Batman movie. Bukhari had stayed up all night, talking to friends.

He had a lot on his mind. Having overcome more than his share of family tragedy, he had made his way to a prestigious prep school. Now, though, he was considering leaving it for a public school, his friends said.

Downstairs, 19-year-old Terrance Perry was sitting in bed, playing with his rifle. He had spent the previous afternoon and evening delivering food at the Newark hospital where he worked. His grandmother picked him up after his shift — he had lived with her for years, and she worried about him on the streets — and dropped him off at his girlfriend’s apartment. At some point, he returned to his grandmother’s home, in the house where Bukhari and his mother lived in an apartment on the top floor.

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