Who killed my son?
Mom and cops at a loss in shooting of Bed-Stuy music producer, dreamer
BY DORIAN BLOCKDAILY NEWS WRITER
Sunday, July 22nd 2007, 4:00 AM

Marietta Langaigne's pain is unbearable.
It's been a month since her 30-year-old son, Curtis Sylvester, was shot in the head outside his girlfriend's Bedford-Stuyvesant apartment - and still she has no idea why.
"I just get weak sometimes thinking too much," Langaigne said. "Someone in Brooklyn knows something."
But until now, there has been no press coverage, and no witnesses have come forward.
Cops say they have no motive and are still investigating.
"I feel they treat it like it's just another black man killed in Bed-Stuy," Langaigne says in frustration. "But he is my son."
To Langaigne, a subway conductor for 21 years, Sylvester is still the son who devoured the World Book Encyclopedia when she bought him and his sister a complete set when they were kids.
Every year, she heard the same message from teachers at Erasmus Hall High - Sylvester had read so many books that most of what he knew he taught himself.
That self-determination continued into adulthood.
Sylvester joined the Israelites, a religious group that believes that blacks descend from the biblical tribe of Judah and that Israel is their homeland.
He became a rap producer, took the name Yashar and performed all over the city with his group, Kidz Gotta Eat.
Langaigne could no longer keep track of all of her son's friends, and after his murder, she is left wondering whether someone who knew him killed him.
"We don't know if it is music-related ... or just someone on the street," she said.
She said a detective from the 79th Precinct visited her last week but had no leads. Police have taken her son's camera and laptop to investigate.
Meanwhile, Langaigne is left surrounded by her son's dreams.
His books - "The Everything Investing Book," "Getting Radio Airplay" and "The Complete Handbook of Novel Writing" - are stuffed onto shelves overtaking her one-bedroom apartment.
His Bible, which was used so often it lacks a cover, is highlighted and underlined on nearly every page.
His mixing equipment and computer are in the same corner where Langaigne watched him sit for hours writing music and creating beats.
His latest project involved roaming the streets of the city filming an amateur documentary about his life.
To pay the bills and take care of his 7-year-old son, he worked as a messenger at Goldman Sachs.
Sylvester was killed on June 17 - Father's Day. Langaigne spoke to him at 5:21 p.m.
"I said, 'Happy Father's Day,' and he wasn't in a rush. He wasn't sarcastic like he sometimes is," she recalled. "At the end, I said, 'You know, you are a good father.' And that was it."
Around 1 a.m. the next day, Sylvester walked a friend to a subway station and returned to his girlfriend's house at 99 Madison St. Before he could walk in the door, he was shot in the head.
Anyone with information about the shooting of Curtis Sylvester should call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS.