Sandy MaloneNew York, NY – The mother of a U.S. Army veteran who was stabbed to death in Harlem in 2018 has called on the new Manhattan district attorney to set aside his social justice projects and start prosecuting killers.
Madeline Brame’s son was murdered on Oct. 19, 2018 when 35-year-old Hason Correa and his father were visiting his father’s girlfriend in her apartment building located on West. 152nd Street in Harlem, the New York Daily News reported at the time.
Correa’s mother said the father and son got into an altercation with a man in the building and won the fight.
The man they had been fighting with ran away and returned with three other people armed with knives, the New York Daily News reported.
Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Sarah Marquez said that 37-year-old Mary Saunders punched and kicked Correa and then held him down as her two brothers and a third man repeatedly stabbed him to death in front of his father.
The entire attack in the lobby of the apartment building was captured on video, according to the New York Daily News.
“She prevented his escape while another person brandishing a knife stabbed him nine times,” Marquez told the judge. “It was captured on video, which clearly established her identity.”
Correa’s father was also stabbed four times but survived, the New York Daily News reported.
One of the knives to Correa’s chest went directly through his heart, the New York Post reported.
Saunders and the other three attackers were arrested and she was initially held on a $750,000 bail, FOX News reported.
It was later reduced to $250,000 cash-only bail, and Saunders remained behind bars, the New York Post reported.
Then in 2019, Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Ellen Biben drastically cut Saunders’ bail to just $120,000.
Saunders was released on 10 percent of that amount – $12,000 – on Dec. 23, 2019, the New York Post reported.
Biben did not reduce the bail of the other defendants charged in connection with the Army veteran’s death.
The judge said she cut Saunders’ bail so drastically because she had children and the murder was her first arrest, the New York Post reported.
But Correa, the man she helped murder, also had a wife and children and had served the United States military with a tour in Afghanistan.
Correa’s mother is now chair of the Victims Rights Reform Council and said she has reached out to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg multiple times but hasn’t gotten any response from him or his office, FOX News reported.
“I would tell him, Mr. Bragg, prosecutors prosecute,” Brame said. “If you’re not going to do your job and uphold the duties of your office, you need to step down and allow someone else who is more capable of doing the job.”
“We’re not interested in your social justice theories, we’re interested in restoring law and order to New York City. That’s all we care about,” the angry mother told FOX News.
“Victims on top of victims, bodies on top of bodies,” Brame said. “The mothers, the families of these victims care nothing about social justice theories. We care about restoring law and order to our city.”
She said the city’s bail reform policies had brought a war to New York City by released 200,000 prisoners from its jails without investing in the necessary resources to provide the newly-released offenders housing, drug treatment, and mental health assistance, FOX News reported.
“This has brought New York City to its knees,” the angry mother said, referring to the district attorney’s failure to prosecute both violent and low-level crimes.
Brame said all crimes, including assaults and larcenies, are traumatic to the victims, FOX News reported.
“Bragg is saying that he’s not going to prosecute or charge as felonies. Those are not victimless crimes,” she said.
The new Manhattan district attorney unveiled his new 10-page, soft-on-crime policies on Jan. 3, ordering his staff to seek reduced charges for certain offenses, to stop asking for bail except in the most extreme cases, and to stop prosecuting so-called low-level offenses altogether, the New York Post reported.
He also said his office will no longer prosecute offenders accused of resisting arrest unless they are also charged with a more serious felony offense.
Suspects arrested for armed robbery of a business will automatically have their charges reduced to misdemeanor petit larceny as long as they don’t use guns, don’t seriously injure anyone, and present no “genuine risk of physical harm,” Bragg said in his memo, according to the New York Post.
Holly Matkin
