South Ozone Park neighbors could barely look as police worked on the crime scene, where the young man was shot in the head at 11 a.m.
The shooting happened on the sidewalk directly across from Frederick Judge playground, a place usually filled with young children. Neighbors say they heard three gunshots.
"It's usually quiet on this end," one resident said. "Maybe three blocks down there are shootings, and that hasn't been in a while."
Those who know the victim say he didn't have a home or any known family. But they say he had a lot of friends and wasn't one to provoke a fight.
"He was real close with my cousins," resident Teshawna Cardwell said. "He asked me for something, I'd give it. He was basically homeless."
Police recovered five shell casings, shutting down part of the street for several hours. Late afternoon, one young man spent time hosing down the sidewalk in front of his grandmothers house, trying to erase the bloodstain reminder of another one of his friends killed on the street.
Police do not have a suspect in custody.
Anyone with information is asked to call police.