Hunter student is slain in Harlem

An honor student whose talent for poetry and passion for peace made him a favorite at Hunter College died yesterday after being gunned down on a Harlem streetcorner.

The killer pulled a 9-mm. handgun and shot Matthew Hall, 18, once in the back after some heated words on the corner of 126th St. and Fifth Ave. shortly after 9 p.m. Wednesday, police said.

Hall had just left a weekly meeting of the Universal Zulu Nation with some pals from school before he was shot about a block away.

"We have no real motive," said one investigator. "We know he was a good kid, so it's hard to say if he was an innocent bystander or someone was looking for him."

The sophomore was taken to Harlem Hospital, where surgeons struggled through the night to save him. He died at 4:30 p.m. yesterday, with his father, George, 79, a retired educator, and mother, Chantal, 54, a psychologist, at his bedside.

The mother said with pride and tears that her son was "peaceful and passionate" and had hoped to become a teacher because "he believed he could change things."

Hall's father said his son was attracted to the Universal Zulu Nation, founded nearly 30 years ago by hip-hop legends Afrika Bambaataa, Kool DJ Herc and Grand Master Flash, because of its message of "education, self-education and giving voice to the weak."

He said the teen founded a chapter of Zulu Nation at Hunter, where he majored in English and philosophy and had a 3.5 grade-point average. He made the dean's list last year.

"He had become interested in his own blackness, and he had become very spiritual, studying Buddhism," his father said sadly. "He was a very special person."

Althea Hall, 58, Matthew's half-sister and one of many relatives who came to console the teen's parents at the family's Greenwich Village apartment, said the slim, 5-foot-7 youth never would have provoked violence.

"He had inner strength, but his greetings were always peace and love," she said.

Word of Hall's death spread through Hunter, and saddened students quickly made plans for a vigil in his honor next week.

"He always had a smile on his face, and he never saw the bad in people," said Kimaada Legendre, a 20-year-old senior. "He was about fighting the struggle against injustice partly by using the hip-hop culture as a political movement."

Friends said Hall wrote poetry and political hip-hop songs, sometimes performing them in Greenwich Village cafes or Union Square Park.

He also was a regular at anti-war demonstrations, they said. Tahira West, 20, called Hall "a peacemaker" devoted to "empowering women and people of color."

"He didn't have a special girl," she said, "but a lot of girls were very fond of him and a lot of them cried for him today."

Hunter spokeswoman Deborah Sack said the college was "devastated by the death of such a promising young man."

She said the school plans to offer a $1,000 reward to help police catch the killer.

NY1 News

Police Searching For Gunman Who Shot Hunter College Student
SEPTEMBER 26TH, 2003

Police are searching for the gunman who left a Hunter College student dead in Manhattan.

Police say 18-year-old Matthew Hall was shot shortly after 9:00 p.m. Wednesday night. He was heading home after a meeting of the Zulu Nation, an African-American cultural organization.

His father, a college professor at Hunter, says the group he belonged to was devoted to peace.

“They were very social-minded and tilted toward the left, as am I. But I don't believe there were any things like gangs and whatnot. They read, study black history, discuss it and each one tries to read a book a week,” George Hall.

The shooting happened at the corner of East 126th Street and Fifth Avenue.

Hall was shot in the back and was taken to Harlem Hospital, where he died Thursday. The school is offering a $1,000 reward for information about Hall's shooting.

HUNTER PROFS' SON IS SLAIN

By ERIKA MARTINEZ and ED ROBINSON

September 26, 2003 -- A Hunter College student was shot and killed in Harlem while attending a meeting of an African-American cultural-awareness group, police said yesterday.
Matthew Hall, 18 - both of whose parents are Hunter professors - was shot once in the back at East 126th Street and Fifth Avenue at 9:15 p.m. Wednesday during a break in a Universal Zulu Nation meeting.

Police said there was an argument on the street involving several people.

It was unclear whether Hall was involved. But a black man in his 20s shot Hall with a a 9mm handgun before fleeing on foot, police said.

Hall, a first-year student who lived with his parents on Sheridan Square in Greenwich Village, was rushed to Harlem Hospital. He died seven hours later.

Cops described the gunman as 5-foot-11, weighing 150 pounds and wearing a white, orange and black striped shirt.

The victim's father, George Hall, told WNBC/Channel 4 that his son was an aspiring high-school teacher who liked writing and rap music.

Sources said that he had a 3.5 grade-point average.

Hall's mother and father are Hunter College professors, and the school has offered a $1,000 reward for information leading to the capture and conviction of the shooter.

George Hall told WNBC that his son joined the Universal Zulu Nation to learn more about black history and culture.

The black nationalist organization says its founder, Afrika Bambaataa, invented hip-hop music 30 years ago. The group's political philosophy appears similar to that of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.

Neighbors at his family's posh high rise said Matthew Hall was an anti-war activist, posting fliers after the 9/11 attacks opposing military action in Afghanistan.

"Our grief is not a cry for war," the signs read.

"He could understand the grief and pain of other people," said Anahit Gharutyunyan-Gaskill, 51, an Armenian immigrant who lives in the building.

"In my 10 years in this country, Matthew was the brightest person I've met in this building," she said.

"He was so smart and articulate. He was so politically aware at such a young age."

When asked what made him so intelligent, Gharutyunyan-Gaskill replied, "Probably his parents."

Another shocked neighbor remembered Hall as the loving owner of a German shepherd he dutifully walked on a regular basis.

"He was a nice guy. Everybody in the building loved him," the neighbor said.

Hall's murder comes just five months after a female Hunter College student was bludgeoned to death in Brooklyn.

Ramona Moore, 21, whose nude, decomposing body was found behind an apartment building, was killed with several blows to the head and chest with a blunt object.

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