You knew when Bernice McFadden was coming around.
Her boisterous voice would boom greetings as she passed by her endless string of friends in the Riverside Apartments on Olson Drive in Ansonia.
But the echoing chambers between those brick apartment buildings will be a little quieter from now on — devoid of McFadden’s signature voice.
The 39-year-old mother was killed early Wednesday, caught in a spray of gunfire aimed at a crowd of people in the courtyard of the apartment buildings.
“Everyone loved her,” said long-time friend Lala Douglas of New Haven. “Everyone trusted her. When you hurt, she was there for you.”
Dozens of friends and neighbors said similar things.
Bernice would do anything for a friend.
Bernice would always forgive people.
Bernice would greet you with a smile.
And she loved to dance.
“We called her Beyonce,” said one friend, who declined to give her name. “She was always shaking that booty.”
McFadden was especially fond of children, and would often be the person to take care of neighborhood children when their families were working, Douglas said. McFadden had six children, Douglas said.
“She was just a nice person,” said friend Malika Mosley. “She was not a bother to anybody…. It hurts.”
Memories of McFadden brought smiles to the faces of her many friends Wednesday, but the mood at Riverside was otherwise tense.
Media crews wandered past a teddy bear memorial set up against the tree near where McFadden was shot. Ansonia police came in and out of the complex, conducting interviews and collecting more evidence.
Children ran between news cameras and police bicycles, playing as they would any other warm summer day.
Neighbors sat on their porches, just watching the scene with disbelief.
“It ain’t the people who live here. It’s the strangers who come in,” said Jane Holley, shaking her head. Holley said McFadden was like a daughter to her.
“They almost had to take me to the hospital last night when they told me,” Holley said.
“She was a happy-go-(lucky) person,” Holley said. “I’m going to miss her dearly.”
Many noted the irony that McFadden had just attended the funeral of Jennifer Lewis, the 22-year-old resident who was stabbed to death in the same block of buildings on June 22.
“I lost my cousin … We buried her Monday,” said Douglas. “And Bernice was there for me. She said ‘You know, they come in threes. I wonder who’s next.’ It was her.”
