Teen shot in Qns. stairwell
Slay over an iPhone A TEENAGER was shot to death inside a Queens public housing development Saturday in a fight over an iPhone, police said.
Trevor Rhudd, 15, was found lying in a second-floor stairwell inside the Beach 41st Street Houses on Beach Channel Drive in Edgemere with a gunshot wound to his chest just after 1:30 p.m., cops said. He died at the scene.
A 31-year-old man was taken into custody, but not immediately charged, police said.
A gun was found at the scene, authorities said.
The boy’s distraught mother wailed as his body was wheeled out of the building on a coroner’s gurney.
“My boy is dead,” she cried, as relatives gathered outside.
A woman, identified as the victim’s girlfriend, buried her head into another woman’s chest as she convulsed with sobs.
Neighbors said the boy and the gunman were fighting over a phone. A relative said Trevor was getting ready to eat when he left to meet a friend who had called.
“His food is still upstairs,” the family member said.
“His sandwich, his chips are still on his dresser. He was about to eat his food before he came outside. Then he got killed.”
She said Trevor was born and raised in the building and recently graduated from charter school, and was headed for the ninth grade.
“He was a humble type of boy. Real quiet. He didn’t talk much,” the relative explained. “If he was in any type of trouble, we didn’t know about it,” she said. “I just don’t understand it. I don’t. Never heard him get loud and saw him in any arguments.”
Neighbors lit candles in the shape of a B at a memorial in the building lobby. The letter stands for Trevor’s nickname, Bubba.
“This is senseless,” a neighbor said. “All these young people have to stop killing each other.”