A 14-year-old resident of Baisley Park Houses in Queens was shot to death on a basketball court during a dispute Saturday night, police said.
Officers from the 113rd Precinct were holding one “person of interest” in the shooting, but no charges had been filed as yet.
The teen, identified as Aamir Griffin of Guy Brewer Blvd in the Baisley Park Houses, a New York City Housing Authority building, was shot once in the neck and rushed to Jamaica Hospital, where he later died of his wound. Police do not believe he was the intended target.
The shooting occurred just after 8 p.m. on Oct. 26 at the basketball court at 116-80 Guy R. Brewer Boulevard. A large group of teens were playing basketball as they usually do on a warm evening, residents say – a place that Griffin spent almost every day playing ball.
A pair of sneakers and other property were left on the court as teens ran in all directions to get out of the way of the gunman.
Neighbors said Griffin was a “good kid” who played a lot of basketball. He was also said to be a good student, a freshman at Benjamin Cardozo High School.
One neighbor, who identified himself as Raymond, said he is angry that the violence has continued in the Baisley Park Houses. He said many people have suffered from gun violence in the development, a photo of one shooting victim sat on a shelf on the second floor of his building.
Raymond said a woman was shot three months ago, and “nobody has yet been arrested for that.”
“I don’t understand why people gotta settle things with a gun,” he said. “They do it to each other here, I don’t know why this keeps happening.”
