“My mother won,” Marcus Colono says. “We were all happy.”

Although he was born and bred in Cambridge, he was proud of his heritage. Two Puerto Rican flags hang on the wall of his third-floor bedroom while one rests folded on a table next to his bed.

The curtains and bedspread are the same shade of deep blue, a lava lamp sits on a table and a photograph of his daughter at age one hangs over his bed.

By the window sits a television set that Colono saved money to buy. Marcus Colono says his brother was a “Blockbuster buff” and spent a lot of time at home playing video games. As a child, Colono played Little League baseball and remained a Red Sox fan throughout adolescence.

“He was always excited...he had a lot of energy. He was awesome,” Marcus Colono says.

The family’s low-income background played an important role in shaping Colono’s character, his brother adds.

Colono sympathized with people who shared similar circumstances, often donating clothes he had outgrown to homeless shelters, his brother recalls.

“When you’re poor it’s even more of a struggle,” Marcus Colono says. “He rose above that.... Being poor does make you strong.”

‘A Sweet, Sincere Kid’

Teachers at Graham and Parks Elementary School recall Colono as a popular and well-behaved student who strove to overcome learning disabilities.

“He was a very well-liked kid by everybody,” says Steven Barkin, his math teacher in seventh and eighth grade. “After many years you start forgetting the kids, forgetting their names. Michael I didn’t forget. He made a big impression on me.”

Barkin recalls that he and Colono had a good rapport and used to tease each other, and says Colono would see him during lunch for extra help with math.

“Learning wasn’t the easiest thing for him, but he worked hard,” says fifth grade teacher Michael S.K. Mitchell. “He was never disrespectful to any adult in the school.”

Leonard J. Solo, who was the principal at Graham and Parks when Colono and his siblings were students, says the school worked closely with the family to try to help Colono.

“He had a really hard family life in some ways,” Solo says. “They were a very strict, very loving family, but the kids...got into a lot of trouble on the street.”