‘I FORGIVE YOU’: VIC’S PA
B’klyn teenage basketball-court killer gets 10 years to life
A grieving father whose teen son was callously murdered on a Brooklyn basketball court forgave his child’s baby-faced killer Monday as the shooter was sentenced to 10 years to life in prison.
“I forgive you from the bottom of my heart,” said David Oyebola, whose 16-year-old son, Oluwadurotimi Joseph Oyebola, was fatally shot Sept. 21, 2018, after then-14-year-old Aaron Nathaniel indiscriminately opened fire at a crowd at Chester Playground in Brownsville.
The teen murderer was hit with the minimum of a decade behind bars in what Brooklyn Supreme Court Youth Part Justice Craig Walker called “by far the lengthiest sentence I’ve had to impose on anyone in my judicial career.”
Nathaniel, now 18, was silent and hung his head as his victim’s devastated dad spoke over a video line —and declined to make a statement in court before he was sentenced.
“The senseless murder of my son in cold blood while he was playing basketball has been [an] horrific and life-changing experience for my family,” Oyebola said. “To the young man who took a life knowing fully well what it means to do so, I can only say this: You have deprived me and my family greatly at a level which you may not even know.”
The victim’s family was unmoored by the murder, moving out of the city shortly after the killing, Oyebola said.
“Emotionally, I still cannot come to terms that he is forever gone. An innocent bright future cut short,” he said.
Nathaniel copped to the crime weeks after the shooting, telling officers what happened and admitting that Oyebola was not the target of his shooting.
Surveillance footage captured the boy walking toward the playground, raising his arm and shooting, then fleeing the scene.
Oyebola was a churchgoing teen set to receive an academic award from Columbia University that November.
He was shooting hoops with friends before heading off to a Brownsville church to go to an after-school activity when he was shot, his family said.
“A promising life has been cut short, a family remains in mourning, and after living through a troubled childhood, this young defendant’s future is now in ruins,” said Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez.
Nathaniel has not turned his life around since he was placed in custody at Brooklyn’s Crossroads Juvenile Facility.
He has picked up two new cases for allegedly setting his own room on fire at the youth facility, according to criminal complaints.
He also has three assault cases that were moved to Family Court, according to a law enforcement source.
“This does not necessarily have to be a life sentence. What you do from this point forward is really going to dictate how your life goes,” said Walker, who handles cases with defendants who committed crimes under the age of 18.