Grieving mother wants answers after 18-year-old son fatally shot in Queens: 'It drives you crazy'
JAMAICA, Queens (WABC) -- The mother and basketball coach of an 18-year-old shot and killed nearly three weeks ago in Queens are speaking out as police continue searching for his killer.
It wasn't long ago that Josiah King was answering questions about his favorite topic and activity: basketball.
Nearly three weeks after the Cambria Heights High School senior was hit with a bullet on 106th Avenue after leaving a graduation party on June 28, there are still no arrests.
King's grieving mother Alicea King is haunted with questions and needs answers.
"I need something. Because losing a child, it drives you crazy. It's all you think about," she said. "You come up with many scenarios and everything. I don't know."
She knows that police believe he was not the intended target, and she also knows how witty, thoughtful and respectful her son was. She's since learned how many other people thought so too.
"You can't always keep an eye on your kids all the time. But to know he was out there, being a good human being, loving sports, being in organizations," she said.
Organizations like the Fresh Air Fund, and King of Kings Foundation, and basketball leagues all over Queens.
"He was, that little kid that was 'coach, coach, I'm going to play for you one day.' And that turned into playing for me one day," said King's basketball coach Kevin Reid.
Reid says he should still be playing.
"I'm hoping as a community, we can get out of our own way," he said. "Somebody knows something. Somebody saw something. Please."
"It's like an eye opener of us needing to protect our babies more," said Mimi Imani of the King of Kings Foundation.
His friends and family are agonizing as they miss the 18-year-old every day.
"He was an 18-year-old boy that was shot in his head and left in the street," King's mother said.
They are trying to stay strong and as positive as he was.
"I'm not angry with who did this. I know teenagers. I understand how it is. But if you're going to do this, own up to what it is that you did," Alicea King said.
When the shots were fired, Josiah was leaving the party near the Van Wyck Service Road after midnight back on June 28, but witnesses have told his mom that he never even made it inside because it was crowded and people were being turned away.
Anyone with information can report it anonymously to the Crimestoppers hotline at 800-577 TIPS.
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