“I called her ‘Sweetie,’” Sosa, 50, told The Post. “I saw her [Monday] morning and she was fine when I saw her. But as the day progressed, I heard that she was heavily sedated.”
Sosa said the woman often slept in Marcus Garvey Park or under the railroad tracks, not far from where her body was found. Despite Sosa’s efforts to help, Sweetie declined treatment.
“She’d say, ‘One day, one day,’” Sosa recalled sadly. “And now she doesn’t have that day.”
Life and Death as a Victim of the Streets
Locals said the area under the 125th Street Metro-North line is a known trouble spot where homeless individuals and drug users congregate. Sweetie, they said, was a familiar face — kind but caught in the cycle of addiction.
“She’d smoke K2, do heroin, smoke crack, do the pills,” Sosa explained. “The lifestyle of the streets: whatever is available.”
Sosa, who has been sober for eight years, said she often brought Sweetie food, clothes, and blankets, hoping she would one day enter recovery.
“My heart is saddened,” she said. “In the life of addiction, if you stay in the streets long enough — it’s like dancing with the devil. He’s going to come knocking on your door.”
