Bro’s bad blast
Shoots 13-yr.-old sib in Qns. vid game spat: cops
A QUEENS TEEN shot his younger brother in the stomach during an argument while they played video games — then told police a mystery man was responsible, according to law enforcement sources.
But Cordell Huggins, 13, bleeding from the bullet wound, quickly corrected his older brother Ekenede Huggins — telling police it was Ekenede, 18, who pulled the trigger inside their Jamaica apartment Friday, sources said.
The suspect at that point offered up different explanations, sources said.
He told police that he accidentally fired the Cobra .380-caliber pistol — which he bought on the street to protect himself — while they were playing with the weapon, sources said. He took a magazine out of the gun and pulled the trigger, not realizing there was a bullet left in the chamber, he said, according to sources.
He also said it was an accident, according to court papers.
“I only shot him once,” he said, according to the papers. “I racked the gun and thought it was empty, so I put it by my side and it went off.”
But he contradicted himself a little later — leading police and the Queens district attorney’s office to conclude this was no accident.
“He kept kicking me in the back,” the suspect allegedly said. “That’s why I shot him.”
Ekenede charged was with attempted murder, as he purposely fired out of anger, according to court papers. The mystery man turned out to be a 14-year-old friend of the suspect, who was there at the time and ran off with the gun. Cops found the 14-year-old with the gun in his possession and arrested him. His case was referred to Family Court. The shooting happened about 2:20 p.m. Friday while the brothers and the other teen, whose name is being withheld because he is a minor, were hanging out in the Huggins’ family home on 140th Ave., near Westgate St. Cordell was rushed to Long Island Jewish Hospital, where he underwent surgery. He is expected to recover.
Ekenede, who is being held at Rikers Island on $50,000 bail, was also charged with felony assault, weapons possession, resisting arrest and possession of a gravity knife, among other offenses.
The gun’s magazine was found in his pocket, sources said. He has one prior arrest, but the case was sealed.
Sharon Brown, 43, who works in a Caribbean restaurant below the brothers’ apartment, said the older sibling had recently started hanging out with a different crowd, sometimes loitering in the restaurant and annoying customers.
Previously, she said, the suspect seemed to be on a different path.
“I would give the youngest one food while his brother was at church,” Brown said. “(Ekenede) told me he was training to be a pastor.”