Angel Rodriguez with his son Angel.
Angel Rodriguez had dreams.
A disability wasn’t going to stand in the way.
While he worked as an Amazon security guard, he dreamed of building up his side power-washing business.
He lugged equipment around to jobs despite lifelong nerve damage in his arms and legs.
He dreamed of buying a big enough vehicle to transport his power-washer to jobs on a flatbed rather than in a trunk.
He stared everyday at the embodiment of his dreams: his beloved 2‑year-old son.
Angel Rodriguez with sister Nelli and baby Angel.
A bullet cut short those dreams. Angel Rodriguez was shot to death at the age of 21. A jogger early Monday morning found his body left by the side of the Mill River.
Police are investigating the homicide, New Haven’s seventh already in a year that is only a month and a half old. They don’t yet know who killed Angel Rodriguez or why.
Neither do the people who loved Rodriguez. They do know they will miss him.
Nelli Rodriguez will miss having a level-headed sibling to open up to and receive advice from.
“That’s my big brother. That’s my father figure,” Rodriguez said in an interview Thursday.
Angel Rodriguez.
Angel was two years older than Nelli. Nelli and Angel and their older brother William grew up in the Hill. Their mom and dad, though separated, were very much in their lives. But mom, with whom they lived, was often at work. Dad moved to Georgia. For Nelli, Angel became the person who offered much of the guidance and support she needed, through her days at Wilbur Cross High School and after graduation.
“He’s always been there,” Nelli said. “He always listened. He always gave good advice — he was a level headed person. If I had an argument with my mom, as kids do, He’d always tell me, ‘Come back to earth. Stop being angry. That’s your mom. She knows she loves you and that’s why she tells you.’
“When I graduated, he told me he was proud of me. Out of all our siblings, I was the one to get the diploma.”
Angel’s main income came from working as a security guard at Amazon’s Orange warehouse. He joked about how he loved his job because “I can sit down and get paid.”
On the side, he was building up a business pressure-washing people’s porches and houses.
He transported his equipment “in the trunk of his little Honda,” recalled Nelli (who cleans school buildings for the Eco-Urban company). Angel’s business was on hiatus during the snow season. He was excited about earning enough money when the business resumed so he could purchase a larger vehicle “and be able to put the tow on his car so he could put a bed on the back to carry the power washer,” Nelli said.
It took extra effort to transport the equipment: Since he was a kid, Angel suffered from Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, which damages the nerves in the legs and arms.
In school, “people used to ask him, ‘Why are you wearing those things on your feet?’” recalled his mother, Jannette Ayala. (Those things were braces.)
Angel didn’t like to talk about the disease. He didn’t want people to know about his disability, according to Ayala. Instead, he found ways to adjust.
Thomas Breen Photo
Police block off area Monday near where body was discovered.
He would get help from his sister or someone else to load the powerwasher into his car, then manage to maneuver it on the job, for instance.
Angel lived with his partner Samantha Torres and baby Angel in the Annex neighborhood. Little Angel was dad’s joy.
“Since he left his house and got with his girlfriend, he got an apartment and a job. He took care of everything in the house,” said Ayala. “I was so proud of him. He reminded me of myself — I had kids young. I had to work to support my kids.”
Ayala recalled getting upset when he and his girlfriend and baby moved into a second-floor apartment on Pardee Street. “I always used to fight with him: ‘Don’t carry his car seat up the stairs.’ He said, ‘You know what mommy? He’s my son. I’ll figure it out.’”
Angel always had an interest in vehicles. When he was a kid, it was bikes. Then he became a serious player of the video car-racing game Forza. “That’s his favorite game. You can ‘buy’ the cars in the game and build them up. He used to buy the cars and build them up in hopes that he could one day do that in real life,” Nelli said.
In addition to the powerwashing venture, Angel was working on starting a T‑shirt printing business called “Broke No More.” He had developed a logo and was talking about it trademarking it.
He would have turned 22 years old in April. Police ask anyone with information about the case to call detectives at (203) 946‑6304. Information may be provided anonymously.
Click on the names below to read about some of the other lives lost amid New Haven’s spike in gun violence over the past year:
AARON KOTOWSKI PHOTO
And click here, here, here, and here to learn more about a memorial garden being created in the West Hills neighborhood by families of homicide victims.
Courtney Luciana contributed reporting.
Thank you NHI for giving us a window as to who Angel Rodriguez was in life and who will miss him now that he's gone. Thank you for posting the links to other stories memorializing the other lives taken from us too soon.
We need to care about every life cut short and ask not just why, but who, and how can we help? It is by drawing attention to each of these lives that we can not become dismissive and forgetful of these lives lost, and we can value these lives and their lost potential and keep pressure on to solve their murders.