Unsolved Mystery: Who Killed Curtis Valentine?
I never thought that my own life would involve an unsolved mystery, but here we are.
How does someone die on opening night, right outside a gallery in a good neighborhood, with dozens of people in attendance inside? And yet, that is exactly what happened to my friend, Curtis Valentine.
One might think that if a person was attacked outside of an art gallery in a hip neighborhood like politically progressive Bushwick, Brooklyn, residents would collectively intervene. That is, at least, the dream. After all, that would be the perfectly Portlandia thing to do, no? Human rights; a person of color in distress; basic human kindness.
And yet, six years has passed since my friend, Curtis Valentine, was attacked and ultimately died from a head injury sustained from some sort of an attack on August 19, 2017. Curtis had no allies in Bushwick that night. And no one has a yet been charged in the homicide. Perhaps we can change that?
Curtis was a young(ish) New York City bike messenger — 32 years old at the time of his death — with an infectious smile and a love of all things beautiful as well as all things skateboarding. Curtis was a little bit cynical about growing up, but, at 32, that was a part of his charm. The laissez-fair attitude towards climbing the corporate ladder. He was often at gallery openings, talking up a beautiful woman or checking out the work or just buzzing around the bar, catching up with friends. He was an interesting dresser (Florida Man meets Brooklyn twee), in shape, had a great sense of humor and the world was his oyster. He was a “guys-guy” that loved beautiful women just as the beautiful women, in turn, appeared to be quite smitten with him.
In August 2017, when the former Tampa, Florida native passed, he was already becoming a character in his Brooklyn neighborhood. He was a larger than life Brooklyn figure and loved gallery opening receptions, which is where I met him.
Looking backwards, I don’t remember what gallery, exactly, was it that I first met Curtis or even what show. Sometime around 2012 we started exchanging emails about gallery openings and hanging out. Everyone I knew found him charming, funny and full of life. Until, of course, he was no longer any of those things. Anyone that knew Curtis would have described him primarily as the life of the party. It is difficult to imagine anyone getting so angry at this fun-loving, skateboarder, perpetually in search of a beer that they would crack his skull, which is how he died after he was revived and managed to walk home, even as his remaining hours were marked.
A month has not passed by since — particularly during the COVID lockdowns — that I have not thought about his senseless passing. The worst part is the lack of closure, the lack of punishment for the killers. “Truth be told, I was not fully aware of how the grieving process would work when it came to my brother’s death. It took years for me to learn how to function in a world that doesn’t include him,” his sister, Sarah wrote on Facebook in August. “It’s been 6 years this week and I’m still figuring it out.”
So are all of his friends. Sarah continued:
It’s difficult sometimes to not be upset with myself for clinging onto a glimmer of hope for some form of justice, reciprocity, or simply closure because I have no idea what those terms even mean anymore. Some days it’s hard to let go of the rage that sparks up within me when I think about what happened to him. On days like today, I can only find solace in knowing that the reason why it continues to be so painful is because I spent every single minute of my life loving my big brother and I always will. With great love comes great loss.
The last recollections of Curtis alive involve him hitting on an attractive woman at the gallery, which is nothing new. His friend Jason Allan said the woman was “not feeling it,” which may have led to the events immediately proximate to his death. Did friends of this woman disapprove of what was going on and intervene? Gwynne Hogan wrote of that night for DNAInfo:
A few minutes later, he saw Valentine again, this time getting frog-marched out of the gallery by three men.
What happened next is unclear, but police believe he suffered a massive head injury outside the gallery that later lead to his death. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has yet to announce the results of his autopsy.
"He was for sure knocked out, on his back," said Allen, who had rushed outside to see what happened. "I'm like, 'What the f--k!' Why would anyone do this? Who would do this to him?"
A crowd of people had gathered around Valentine, Allen said, when the three men who'd taken him out of the gallery were already halfway down the block and still walking.
"Everyone was just so busy with their phones out, filming him being knocked out, throwing water on him, beer on him, slapping him to wake him up," he said.
This is perhaps the hardest part of the story, because you don’t think it would happen in Brooklyn. But Curtis had cracked his skull, probably on the concrete from being thrown or tripping, and the hipsters on the street chose to take cell phone pictures. Video surveillance from around Troutman Street, near Curtis's apartment yielded nothing that could help detectives as to the identity of the three men that were last seen with Curtis. And — worst of all — no one from the neighborhood has come forward with any information about the identity of the three men even though someone definitely knows.
Curtis woke up and tried to get back into the gallery, but he was not allowed back in. He had a habit of being kicked out of galleries and bars, usually for intoxication, and it was a standing joke around his friends — until, of course, it wasn’t. Curtis walked home to sleep it off, not believing that he had been knocked out. One of the more confounding aspects of head injuries — indeed, most brain injuries — is the lack of memory of the trauma. What Curtis didn’t know — and couldn’t have known — was that he was already dying as a result of the cracked skull, even as he was walking home with what he thought was only a headache. Curtis was one of the 7 to 10 percent of people that die from skull fractures, if it is severe enough. If Curtis was intoxicated enough and was thrown — or dropped — he probably would not have braced himself, particularly his head.
Curtis Valentine was ultimately found by his roommate face down and unresponsive, covered in vomit, on the floor later on. His roommate called 911 at around 9PM, and Curtis was declared dead at the scene. At the time the death it was ruled as unsuspicious.
It was only afterwards, after all the pieces were assembled that it became obvious that the skull fracture and his death were the result of something that happened involving those three men.
Were these men connected with the gallery? Were those three men connected with the women that Curtis had been flirting with? Did any of the graffiti artists at the gallery show see anything? So far, none have come forward. “A month has passed since Valentine, 32, was found dead by his roommate on Aug. 19, and police have still not been able to corroborate accounts that circulated widely on social media that he was punched out in front of Head Too Heavy Gallery at 383 Bushwick Ave.,” wrote Gwynne Hogan one month after Curtis’s death. Since then, nothing. Curtis Valentine, my friend, has become a cold case.
If anyone has any information about this case, please contact Detective John Bartek at the 83rd Precinct, at (718) 574-1796
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