A hooligan whose reckless gunfight allegedly led to the tragic death of beloved Harlem community pillar Excenia Mette was out on bail in a slashing case when the senseless shooting unfolded, The Post has learned.
Darious Smith, 23, pulled a white Tyvek suit over his face as he was pushed in a wheelchair into a Manhattan courthouse Thursday to face charges of attempted murder and criminal possession of a firearm for Mette’s death.
Sources said Smith is believed to have exchanged shots with the still-at-large gunman whose stray bullet hit Mette in the head as she selflessly rushed outside to check on her grandson Tuesday night.
Smith was shot in the foot during the scuffle.
Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Kacie Lally ordered Smith to be jailed without bail — an outcome he dodged the last time he stood accused of a violent crime.
“This is what’s making our job harder,” Mayor Eric Adams said Thursday during an event about taking illegal guns off the streets.
“When you allow those who have recidivism, continuous violence in our city to continue to walk the streets,” he said.
“Criminal justice system includes police, judiciary, and legislators. They all must be engaged on the same path.”
Records show Smith was arrested in June 2024 after he allegedly slashed two people with a box cutter on Lenox Avenue near West 118th Street while he tried to steal e-bike batteries.
When he was arraigned on robbery and assault charges, prosecutors in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office requested bail at $50,000 cash or $150,000 bond, records show.
But Judge Michael Ryan set it at $10,000, which Smith posted — allowing him to walk free ahead of his scheduled May trial, sources said.
Smith lived just a block away from Mette’s former business, Momma Zee’s Food to Plez Deli, which was the first black woman-owned bodega in the city when she opened it in the 1980s.
Loved ones and neighbors gathered Thursday at a makeshift shrine in front of Mette’s home at West 113th Street and Lenox Avenue, where she was shot.
They hung up a photo of Mette, whom they affectionately knew as “Momma Zee” or “Zeenie,” frolicking on a beach.
Neighbor Barbara Johnson, 66, said she wasn’t surprised one of the shooters is an accused repeat offender.
“They need to do something for the youth, to keep them occupied, give them something to do, something to look forward to,” she said.
“Idle hands is the Devil’s workshop.”
“No system devised to keep the people down will do anything to help us up, and that’s from the beginning, the first day of this country.”
Adams, speaking to PIX11 Wednesday night, instead blamed the criminal justice system for allowing Smith to be out on the streets.
“Public safety is a criminal justice apparatus that includes police, that includes judges, that includes lawmakers. The police are doing their job,” he said.
“When you have a person with repeated violence, just last year, he was arrested for robbery, stabbing two people. Now he’s back on the street, involved in a shooting that took the life of an innocent woman. We have to have the other parts of the criminal justice system do their job.”
City Councilman Yusef Salaam (D-Manhattan) — who represents the Harlem neighborhood and chairs the council’s public safety committee — issued a heartfelt remembrance of Mette, and blamed the violence in part on systemic failures.
“Harlem is in mourning for Mette, who fed the community, stood beside the youth and gave back through service with leaders such as the Rev. Al Sharpton and the artist Jim Jones,” Salaam said.
“This act of violence — the result of reckless and deadly conflict on our streets — is yet another painful reminder that we are in the midst of a public safety crisis,” he said.
“It is a crisis rooted not just in crime, but in a long history of disinvestment, lack of opportunity, and the systemic failures that continue to plague our neighborhoods.”
Other lawmakers representing the area focused on gun prevention efforts, such as Assemblyman Jordan Wright (D-Manhattan), who called it a reminder “of how imperative it is to get guns off of our streets.”
“We have to continue fighting hard together to find solutions,” added state Sen. Cordelle Cleare (D-Manhattan) in a statement.
“Now is not the time for resources to be cut.”
Video footage showed a man matching Smith’s description ride a scooter toward a group of people, pull a gun and fire two shots, court papers state.
Police believe the second suspect then grabbed a gun of his own and fired off the shots that wounded Smith and killed Mette, law-enforcement sources have said.
Smith allegedly rode the scooter along West 113th Street before he collided with an NYPD cop who tried to stop him, the court docs state.
He ran away onto St. Nicholas Avenue, where he threw a 9-millimeter pistol to the sidewalk, the papers state.
Sources said eight bullets were found at the fatal shooting scene.
Smith’s high-profile criminal defense attorney Dawn Florio claimed in court that four cops beat him with a guns and a Taser, in addition to his gunshot wound.
She asked for medical attention for Smith and griped that him being connected with the shooting is causing problems for his loved ones.
“My client’s family who lives in the neighborhood is getting threatened,” she said.
— Additional reporting by Vaughn Golden and Hannah Fierick
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