By Christina Santucci
Police were still looking for a gunman in a dark-colored hoodie who shot and killed a 20-year-old gym teacher in his Laurelton back yard early Monday morning and wounded another man, the NYPD said Wednesday.
Authorities said no one had been arrested in the Memorial Day murder of Dowayne Henry two days after his death.
The victim’s heartbroken sister, 27-year-old Kimberlyn Leslie, said she had left the house on 137th Avenue near 218th Street only 30 minutes earlier when she was called and told Henry had been struck in the shooting.
“When I got home, he was on the steps,” she said Monday afternoon while being consoled by friends and relatives. “He was laying right here.”
Police said they responded just after 2:30 a.m. and found two men with gunshot wounds. Henry, who had wounds to his left ear, right part of his nose, left chest and left forearm, was pronounced dead at the scene, while a 25-year-old man was taken to Jamaica Hospital to be treated for a gunshot wound to his left rear shoulder, the NYPD said.
A spokesman for the NYPD said Henry did not have a criminal record. The wounded man, who was not identified, had had some minor encounters with the law, the spokesman said.
Leslie said that at the time the gunfire began Henry had been barbecuing with several friends in the yard behind his home.
“Someone just came up and started firing. There was like seven or eight guys in the yard at the time,” she said she was told. Police described the shooter as wearing a dark-colored hoodie.
Leslie said Henry worked as an assistant physical education instructor at Martin de Porres School in Elmont, L.I., and as a salesman at Champs Sports.
He adored sneakers including his beloved Jordans, family members said.
“He loved to rearrange them. He put the ones he liked the most on top,” Leslie said.
But his true passion was basketball.
“He loves basketball. He plays basketball,” Leslie said.
His sister said Henry had been a hoops player while attending Martin Van Buren High School and was also on Coconut Creek High School’s squad when he moved to Florida for several years.
At 6-foot-2, Henry played shooting guard, relatives said.
On the website BeRecruited.com, Henry had written, “I understand the game. Furthermore I do not like to hurt my team – I dish the ball but when it’s time to put points on the board I will. I am very cohesive. I am a stalker on the defensive end will not give up on a play I will hustle to the best of my ability.”
Henry returned to his home in southeast Queens to attend Monroe College, which has campuses in the Bronx and Westchester County, and was planning to transfer to York College in Jamaica.
“He loves his family. He loves his mom,” Leslie said, adding that she could not even describe the pain her mother was feeling at the loss of her son. Henry’s father, Ken, collapsed while watching authorities perform their investigation and had to be treated by emergency responders Monday morning.
Leslie said the family was awaiting the completion of an autopsy before planning funeral arrangements.
Reach managing editor Christina Santucci by e-mail at timesledgerphotos@gmail.com by phone at 718-260-4589.
