Felix Antonio Vale

Jose Quintana's youngest brothers, Felix and Ivan Vale, were eight and 10 years younger, but he understood them pretty well. The older one, Felix, loved children, wanted marriage and loved nothing more than family. "If it was between spending the day in Hollywood with Jennifer Lopez, or having a family gathering over here, he would definitely pick us," Mr. Quintana said. "He was actually the soul of the family."

The family included four brothers and one sister, plus dozens of cousins and others from New Jersey, Los Angeles, Puerto Rico, or Connecticut.

Felix Vale, 29, lived in East New York with his mother, whom he supported with his job as a manager at Cantor Fitzgerald. "Felix was the type that if he met you five minutes ago and you needed somebody to help you do your move, he was there," Mr. Quintana said.

He helped his brother, Ivan Vale, 27, get a job at eSpeed, part of Cantor Fitzgerald. He did well there, surviving a round of layoffs on Sept. 10. Ivan Vale had been married to his wife, Lucy, for three years. "They didn't have any kids; what they had was a zoo," Mr. Quintana said, listing the couple's pets: six to eight rabbits, four or five lizards, two cats, one dog.

"Ivan was a little off center; he loved these weird things," Mr. Quintana said. "Ivan loved skeletons, he loved swords, and the stuff with the animals. He painted his room black one time. Once he had a lizard, an alligator, I'm not sure what the heck it was, and he divided his room in half. He gave the lizard half, in its cage, and the other half was for him."

"They're Brooklyn kids who never got into trouble," Mr. Quintana said. "They were doing fine. They were doing O.K."