‘Meant to kill him’
‘My son was a good boy,’ cries slain teen’s ma
The mother of a 15-year-old boy shot in the head at the St. Nicholas Houses lamented Saturday her son’s murder and its deliberate nature, telling the Daily News: “They meant to kill him.”
“My son was a good boy. He was a good son. This was not a stray bullet. He was murdered,” said Dawn Bluford, 47, whose son Jeremiah Draper was killed Friday.
Police sources said the teen was shot at least once about 9:35 p.m. in the rear courtyard at W. 131st St. and Adam Clayton Powell Blvd. in Harlem. Jeremiah, who lived at 240 W. 129th St. with his parents and sister, died near a playground.
“They shot my son in the head,” Bluford said. “They meant to kill him. He was with his friends and they was doing what teenagers do and they shot him. He was only 15.
“He didn’t have no beef with anybody,” the teen’s grieving mother told The News. “It could have been a personal shot. It could have been these gang wars around here. They come from other projects and come in here a lot and assault kids their age. It’s not the first, second, third, or fourth time it has happened.” The boy’s father, Jamal Draper, 48, a salesclerk, was stunned. “I don’t have any more words,” he said. “It hurts.”
When tragedy struck, Jeremiah was sitting with his friend Gregory Bermudez.
Gregory, 17, shook uncontrollably as he told The News, “We was sitting there. It was me and my group of friends, and we was just chillin’, laughin’, talkin’, laughin’ it up.”
He said he saw two people creeping nearby and warned his friends to watch their backs. Then, one of the two “just fired,” and people ran. “That was like my little brother. He never do nothin’. All he do is play ball, like get good grades and all that.”
Gregory said he and Jeremiah were not affiliated with any gangs. “No, not at all. Not him. He was too young," he told The News. “He didn’t even get to live his life. He didn’t even hit 16 yet. I can’t believe it. He was too good of a person.”
Gregory’s brother Justin, 22, told The News that when he got to the courtyard, “[Jeremiah] was laying here, slumped over. He was already dead. One shot like that to the head and you’re gone.”
He said Jeremiah was “a good kid” who “knew everyone out here and he was good with everyone. He was not the type of kid to have trouble with people. He used to come over to my house and eat with my family.
“I can’t believe this. I talked to him yesterday. We played basketball. This is crazy.”
Cops searched the area for surveillance video late Friday. As of Saturday there were no arrests and police did not offer a motive for the killing.
Jeremiah had been on a basketball team called the “Jumpshots Over Gunshots” since 2014, his coach, Shaun Best, told The News. “I can’t say what went wrong. You could say he just got caught up with the youth out here. They only know how to communicate with violence. The mother is destroyed. I just hugged her for 20 minutes.
“Jeremiah was a loving individual … a happy-go-lucky kid. He loved his friends and he loved his family. He was somebody I talked to all the time, and I really have no words right now,” said Best, who lives in the same building as Jeremiah’s family. He told The News he created Jumpshots Over Gunshots “so kids could learn how to walk away from trouble and do something positive in their idle time.” And, he said, “There’s just not enough police presence out here. They put these bright lights and cameras out here. but when a crime happens they still don’t see anything. That still doesn’t stop the violence.”
Jeremiah’s sister Katherine Letman, 24, said he was “very funny … the jokester of the family.”