Young dad slain in B’klyn
Bed-Stuy neighbor: When will we ‘stop doing this to each other?’
A Brooklyn man killed in a drive-by shooting early Tuesday was probably not the intended target, according to residents who said the young father largely kept to himself.
About five shots rang out along Lexington Ave. near Marcy Ave. in Bedford-Stuyvesant about 1:40 a.m., cops and witnesses said; some mistook the gunfire for holiday fireworks.
The confusion turned to horror at the death of Lateek Poindexter, 29, who was shot in the head just doors away from his Bedford-Stuyvesant home.
Medics rushed the victim to Kings County Hospital but he could not be saved.
Cops said they did not know if Poindexter was the intended target, but neighbors who knew him said they could not imagine anyone having a beef with the young dad who could often be trusted with the neighborhood kids.
“He was a good kid. He kept to himself,” said neighbor Charlene, 50. “He watched over
everybody’s kids. He’d go to the park with them. He loved kids. Even to my grandson. I was like ‘Oh, I’m going upstairs, watch him’ and he would watch him. He clicked with little kids. Anybody’s kids. They just clicked. Kids want to go to the park. He’d take the kids to the park. Any kids who wanted to go.”
A neighbor named Val, who lives across the street, recounted
how the shots rang out.
“I think I heard four,” said Val, 59. “I saw the victim lying motionless on the sidewalk. Then the cops and the ambulance just started coming. The EMT came. I saw one person do chest compressions, while he was on the sidewalk. It was quiet, because I wasn’t sleeping at the time and then there was just a bunch of commotion. I heard four shots and I’m like, ‘Oh my God that sounds so close.’ ”
She was certain it wasn’t firecrackers.
“I definitely knew it was gunshots,” she said. “I could smell the gunpowder.”
Poindexter’s LinkedIn page said he was a carpenter, and neighbors said he lived with his parents not far from where he was shot.
Val said her grandson and Poindexter were talking about basketball the day before the shooting.
“My grandson plays baseball and basketball,” the neighbor said. “They were talking about who’s going to win the season. My grandson is 14. He’s a very cool guy.”
Val said she is worried for his grandson and others in the neighborhood.
“When are we going to stop doing this to each other?” Val said. “This killing? It’s senseless. If you have a disagreement just go physical. Just go physical. Let the best man win. Why do we have to use a gun? I tell my kids I wish I had seen the future. I don’t think I would’ve had kids to leave them to this senseless violence now.”