Mother pushing police to crack Brooklyn cold case of teen son's murder

EAST NEW YORK, Brooklyn (WABC) -- The mother of a Brooklyn teen, who was gunned down after playing basketball in 2017, is continuing her efforts to push police to solve the cold case.

Dionne Boyd's son would've celebrated his 20th birthday next week. Instead of planning a party, she's planning another rally to help find the person who murdered her teenaged son.

"I want justice for him," Boyd said.

Her son Clayton Hemingway Jr, or CJ as his friends called him, was a college bound teenager who just finished doing what he loved best, playing basketball, when he was gunned down just before nightfall in November of 2017.

CJ was just steps away from the front door of Linden Houses where he lived in the East New York section of Brooklyn.

"He'd say 'we got to get out of here mom, we got to get out of the projects mom,' he told me that," Boyd said. "I want some answers, I want answers on why my son is dead."

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She's upset her son's case hasn't been solved and worries it may get pushed aside with an increase in crime.

From 2019 to 2020, shootings citywide have increase by 97%, murders increased by 44% and the number of murder cases solved went down by 12%.

"The community is not safe with these boys out here shooting people, shooting peoples kids," Boyd said.

7 On Your Side reached out to the NYPD requesting an interview. An NYPD spokesperson declined and sent a statement instead saying "There are no updates at this time and the investigation remains ongoing."

Meanwhile, Boyd said the NYPD is raising the Crime Stoppers reward from $2,500 to $10,000 and they're issuing new fliers that she'll post around East New York.

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The 28-year-old officer was struck in the rear of his bulletproof vest, as well as in his leg and buttocks, near Macon Street and Howard Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant.

If you have information in regards to his murder, you can call the anonymous hotline at 800-577-TIPS.

"If anyone knows anything, they should tell who did this because it could be your child, your child is next," Boyd said.

Data Journalist Frank Esposito contributed to this story.

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