By KEVIN SHEEHAN, ANNAIS MORALES and HEATHER HADDON
She was shot for the son who slipped away.
A loving mother who was devoted to helping Haiti was shot in the face yesterday by a thug searching for her troubled son, who desperately pleaded to her to run away from the gunman standing outside the family home.
"He said, ‘Don’t open the door, don’t open the door,’" said Pierre Fougere, 30, the victim’s oldest son and a security guard at MOMA.
But it was too late.
Marie Fougere, a 51-year-old nurse with a classy sense of style, was fighting for her life after she was savagely shot at least once in the face. The bullet traveled through her chin, down her neck and into her shoulder, according to members of the tight-knit Haitian family.
The house where church-going mom Mary Fouger was shot.
"She is a caring, peaceful woman. She doesn’t deserve this," said her oldest son, through tears.
The tall, attractive woman worked long hours as a nurse’s aide at the Coler-Goldwater Specialty Hospital on Roosevelt Island, while devoting herself to volunteer work at the Salem Missionary Baptist Church in her free time. After the earthquake, she helped make sure donations flowed to those who needed them most.
"She was very instrumental in connecting us in people us with people in Haiti," said James Thornton, the church pastor.
Fougere’s younger son, Mac, was known to run with a bad crowd and keep several girlfriends. Fighting among his crew had resulted in two shootings the previous week, said Maxime Fougere, 51, the victim’s husband.
"I don’t think it was a robbery. This was someone coming over for something," he said. "The person knows Mac’s bedroom."
At around 11 p.m., Fougere was home making soup with her family in their two-family home on Avenue M and East 93rd Street, in Canarsie. Her younger son was downstairs when he heard a rap on his bedroom window, with the shooter looming outside. The gunman then marched down the alley next to the tidy, brick home and pounded on the side door.
Fougere came down the wooden stairs to answer. Her son screamed for to her to stop, but the gunman shot at the door three times with a large-gauge gun, blowing out the diamond-shaped window in the door.
Fougere was rushed to Brookdale University Hospital, where doctors were attempting to stabilize her, family members said. She opened her eyes once and squeezed her husband’s hand, but was in critical condition. She was to undergo emergency surgery yesterday, with family members keeping vigil at her bedside.
"To see something like this happen to my mother, it kills me inside," her eldest son said.
Fougere was supposed to attend a holiday missionary luncheon at church yesterday, and members were shocked when they heard about the shooting.
"I was absolutely devastated," Thornton said. "She had a great personality."
Police sources said the shooter was looking for Fougere’s youngest son, Mac. When police questioned him, the man flew into a rage, screaming and yelling that he wanted to go see his mother, they said.
Police recovered three, .45-caliber bullets at the scene. No arrests had been made as of yesterday.
With Doug Auer
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