Police eye dispute at school as motive in teen boy's fatal shooting in Queens
JAMAICA, Queens (WABC) -- The devastated family of a 16-year-old boy, who was shot and killed on his way home from school on Wednesday, is speaking out about the tragedy.
Sincere Jazmin had just gotten off the Q83 bus with another teen on Wednesday, and police say the gunman was waiting for him.
Upon arrival, police say the teen boy was unconscious and unresponsive after being shot in his torso.
They responded to a 911 call of a person shot in front of 171-42 Liberty Ave. in Jamaica around 2:40 p.m.
Jazmin was rushed to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center but could not be saved.
Investigators now believe the gunfire is linked to an ongoing dispute in school.
The death has left Jazmin's family devastated. His aunt is wondering why a dispute had to turn so violent.
"I don't understand these people," said Jazmin's great aunt Debra Coggins. "Kill, kill. Take the guns off the street."
Police were outside their home in Jamaica on Thursday, where basketballs linger by the lawn, and crying could be heard just beyond the door.
"We call him 'Boo Boo.' All he does is smile all time, all he does is smile," Coggins said.
Surveillance video shows the 16-year-old gunshot victim casually walking down the middle of Liberty Avenue on Wednesday afternoon.
Without breaking stride, clutching his chest, the victim looks down at his wound, then heads for a deli on the corner. The teen takes a seat and then collapses on the step.
A beer deliveryman then calls 911. Moments later, the victim manages to sit back up, only to collapse one more time.
Harry Patel is the deli worker -- seen in the surveillance video in a white hoodie -- who walked over to try to help the victim up.
"Because he's sleeping, so I do try," Patel said. "I say, 'What happened?' But he wasn't answering."
Deli workers said they had no idea what was happening. They said there was no blood, they couldn't see any injuries, and they said the victim didn't ask for help or say what happened. He didn't say a word, and they didn't hear any gunshots, but the victim was holding his chest in pain.
"I don't know what happened. He's coming from outside, I don't know what happened," said deli worker Kenny Patel.
On Thursday at the deli, Jazmin's younger sister Michelle, and his girlfriend Jalyn, spoke to Eyewitness News.
They shared a video clip of Jazmin rapping about bullets.
They say the shooting stemmed from an ongoing dispute at John Adams High School.
Jazmin was shot closer to a body shop, where security cameras captured a short confrontation.
Wednesday, a large number of police went to a home on 196th Street in St. Albans, waited for a search warrant to take down a door, but hours later left empty.
There's an active search to find the person who pulled the trigger. They say the gunman was wearing a black vest over a gray hoodie, a black backpack, and a mask.
Anyone with information is asked to call the police.
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