STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — A 16-year-old has been charged with murder in connection with the shooting of a 13-year-old boy in a Stapleton playground on Friday, police announced Tuesday afternoon.
The male suspect, whose name has not been released due to his age, is also charged with two counts of assault, criminal use of a firearm and menacing, according to an NYPD statement. He was apprehended on a warrant earlier Tuesday morning, a source told the Advance/SILive.com.
The NYPD identified the victim as Jamoure Harrell of South Beach.
While the NYPD said in a statement the boy died on Monday, a community leader on Staten Island with ties to the family said the victim remained on life support as of Tuesday morning.
The boy had been deemed brain dead in the aftermath of the shooting.
A possible motive and whether the victim was the intended target of the attack is still being investigated by police.
The 13-year-old boy suffered a gunshot wound to the head in Rev. Dr. Maggie Howard Playground.
The shooting occurred in the vicinity of the basketball courts on Tompkins Avenue near Broad Street, next to a parking lot for the Stapleton Houses. It is also within walking distance of three neighborhood schools, Dreyfus Intermediate School (I.S. 49), the Eagle Academy and PS 78.
The 13-year-old boy was being mentored by a community advocate at the time of the attack as a means to keep a distance from street violence, according to one source.
‘BUNCH OF KIDS IN PARK’
The shooting Friday was one of several violent incidents over the past year in the shadow of the Stapleton Houses. But this one, according to community organizers, hit differently.
“There was a bunch of kids in the park,” said Mike Perry, a city-commissioned violence interruptor with True2Life Staten Island. He arrived within minutes of the shooting, in time to see emergency responders perform CPR on the young victim. “This [was] tough, bro.”
It was just over a week ago police responded feet away inside 75 Hill St….
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