Teen ‘set up over a girl’
B’klyn boy, 14, shot in head, near death
AN AMBUSHED Brooklyn teen was left brain-dead by a bullet to the forehead after a text message lured him away from a friend’s graduation party, relatives said Thursday.
Critically injured Akeel Christopher hovered near death as his devastated kin stood vigil in a Brooklyn hospital just days before his 15th birthday.
“He’s a good boy,” said his sobbing mother, Natasha Christopher. “I know every mother says that, but my son is a good boy. He never hurt anyone. He doesn’t deserve this.”
Akeel’s uncle, Dwayne Mitchell, said doctors had not given the family much hope.
“The bullet is in his brain and the neurosurgeons say they can’t move it,” said Mitchell, 38. “We don’t know what’s going to happen. We’re praying over it.”
The Transit Tech High School student was at a party with a half-dozen friends when he received a text inviting him to another Wednesday night bash.
“When he got there, no one was there,” said the teen’s stepfather. “It was a setup over a girl.”
The unarmed Akeel and his pals were confronted by two older gunmen. One opened fire on the corner of Evergreen Ave. and Cornelia St. in Bushwick around 11 p.m., the stepdad said.
Cops confirmed the showdown. As Akeel and company stood there, a voice in the other group asked, “Are you part of the Loot crew?” and then the gunfire erupted.
The shooters snatched the critically injured boy’s cell phone to cover up their tracks, according to the stepdad, who declined to give his name.
No weapons were recovered, and no arrests were made.
NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly said the shooting was possibly gang-related, although Akeel was not a gang member.
“I think it’s something you might infer from the statement that was used,” Kelly said.
Police are also investigating whether the shooting was retaliation for a beatdown dished out by one of Akeel’s group.
One of the youths at the shooting scene was just 6 years old, Kelly added.
The shooting happened just an hour before Akeel’s grandmother was due to pick him up.
“It’s crazy,” the stepfather said outside Brookdale University Hospital. “What would make a person shoot this kid in the head? He’s 100 pounds soaking wet.”
“It’s in God’s hands now,” the stepdad said. The teen’s mother said she spoke with Akeel shortly before he was gunned down.
“He was so happy,” she said. “He was just going to spend time with some friends.”
A woman who lives on the corner where the shooting occurred heard the gunfire and looked outside to spy the bleeding victim splayed on the ground.
“I just heard four gun shots right in a row — pop, pop, pop, pop,’ ” recalled Lupe Estrella, 48. “When I looked out my window, I saw a young man laying there. It looked almost like he was convulsing.”
Estrella, a former volunteer emergency medical technician who remains certified, sprinted from her house in pajamas to help the boy.
“It was just basic instinct. I ran out to him and he had barely a pulse,” she said. “He was bleeding out his ears and his mouth, and he had what looked like a bullet right in the middle of his forehead, between his eyes.”
“I still cannot believe it,” she said of the shooting. “I’m still traumatized.”