A multicultural crowd of friends and relatives filled Holy Apostles Church on Ninth Ave. in Chelsea to capacity last Sunday, while dozens more who could not get in gathered outside, to say farewell to Matthew Hall, a Hunter College student who was fatally shot in Harlem last Wednesday night.
The incident reportedly happened shortly after an argument broke out at a Zulu Nation meeting Hall, 18, had just left, when he was caught in a crossfire. Hall was a youth leader in the hip-hop-based organization. The murder remains unsolved.
Matthew Hall lived on Sheridan Sq. with his parents, Chantal, 54, and George Hall, 79. He attended P.S. 234 in Tribeca and LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts. Active in progressive causes, he was a member of the Refuse and Resist Youth Network Organization, an antiwar group, and led progressive youth hip-hop events at Judson Memorial Church. He was remembered as a young man of peace and a natural leader.
Bronx Assemblymember Ruben Diaz, Jr., and Brooklyn Reverend Herbert Daughtry attended the service to pay respects and call for an end to violence.
Hall was baptized in Holy Apostles, where his father, a music teacher, was the organist and choirmaster in the 1950s. Hall’s mother, who is French Swiss, is a clinical psychologist. Hall was their only child together. His father has four other children.
