"They loved each other so much and they had each others' back," said Adio Akil, Akil's mother.
[Ads /]
That's the only reason the family of Duro Akil and Okera Ras I can understand why they died within hours of each other.
"Yeah they were very close. Very close. Like most of the pictures we have they're standing together," said Rod Ivey, Ras I's brother.
Stay on top of breaking news stories with the ABC11 News App
"It's a lot. It's a lot to lose two people at once and two people beautiful people," Adio said.
Akil was shot by a stray bullet Monday night inside his home on East 219th Street in the Bronx.
[Ads /]
Wednesday morning when the family found out the 34-year-old, father of two, was brain dead, they went home to tell his father.
But Ras I had suffered a fatal heart attack in bed.
"It was so hard to take that, take seeing your son lose two gallons of blood," Adio said. "I'm angry, I'm sad. For the culprit who took my son away and caused his father to leave I'm angry, I'm also sad for him. I feel sorry for him because when you do what he did there's a price to pay."