For Héctor Lavoe's biographer, ... One of them is the violent death of Lavoe’s 17-year-old son, Héctor Jr., in 1987, apparently in an accident with a loaded gun.

Lavoe moved into the building on the corner of Westchester and Bryant avenues with his sister when he first came to The Bronx from Puerto Rico.

To the world, he was Hector Lavoe, El Cantante, King of Salsa. A drug addict and an AIDS victim. But to Carmen, her first love was someone else: "a good man." ...

The attempt left him in chronic pain for the rest of his life. By his last public performance in 1990, he reportedly could barely sing. Lavoe’s songs dealt with themes of life, love, and heartbreak.