Fam left in shock in teen’s slaying No answers, only pain; killer at large
Just five days after Derek Trucios’ friends and family packed his Brooklyn front yard to celebrate his 17th birthday, the teen’s loved ones returned for a much grimmer gathering — to mourn the sudden end of his life as the victim of a botched hold up.
Derek was shot Wednesday in what police are describing as a robbery gone wrong in Flatbush, about three miles from his Sunset Park home.
“My son was a good and respectful person to everybody around him,” said his father, Emmanuel Trucios, 39 and a union carpenter, as the teen’s mother wept. “He was a quiet kid. He was a junior at Sunset (Park) High School. We have no idea who would do this to him.”
About two dozen of the victim’s friends and relatives flocked to his basement apartment and stood by the stoop and small yard outside as news of Trucios’ senseless death spread.
“He turned 17 five days ago. We were all together at his birthday party, which we held out here,” his father said. “He leaves his little sister, his 10-year-old sister. She knows what happened, but she doesn’t know how. We’re in disbelief.”
Trucios and a 16-year-old pal were shot on the corner of E. 26th St. and Foster Ave. about 2:40 p.m. Wednesday, not long after a witness saw the gunman approach the two teens at a nearby store and demand their belongings.
The teens tried to fight the mugger off, but the crook rattled off about a half-dozen shots, hitting Trucios in the face and the other teen in the hand.
“It was like six shots. Boom, then boom boom boom boom,” said one witness, who didn’t give his name. “One of the kids was on his back, bleeding from his mouth. His friend was over him. Both his hands were bloody.”
The gunman ran south on E. 26th St., then turned east on Foster Ave. He has not been caught.
Trucios died at Kings County Hospital, where the other victim was in stable condition.
Police found two book bags, a hoodie, and a 9-mm. handgun at the scene. It doesn’t appear the gun belonged to the shooter, a source said. Cops were trying to determine who the gun belonged to Thursday.
Trucios’ dad told the Daily News he didn’t know why his son was in that neighborhood.
“He left school, came home, and went out again,” the dad said.