Police arrest accused gunman in shooting of 2 teens in Brooklyn

BEDFORD-STUYVESANT (WABC) -- Police have arrested a 15-year-old in the shooting death of Dontea Bascom.

On April 17 just after 7 p.m., police said shots rang out at the Marcy Housing Complex in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn. Bascom, 16, was hit in the groin, and his 13-year-old cousin was also shot. Bascom died at the hospital.

Elijah Morton, 15, of Brooklyn, has been charged with second-degree murder, attempted murder, and weapon charges.

Sherwayne Bascom said at the time of his son's death that Dontea, the seventh of 12 children, had been to his home in the Prospect Lefferts Garden area before heading to the Marcy Housing Complex with his cousin, Michael.

He said the two went to talk to some girls that they knew. "He was always loveable, just in the wrong area," said Sherwayne Bascom.

"They took my baby, I can't believe they took my baby!" he said. "Everything is just what hood you're from, everything is just rivalry, you know?"

Community organizer Umara Jordan has lived in the neighborhood since the 50s. He said he has been trying to work with elected officials to curb teen violence. "We have an accountability and responsibility to ourself to clean up our own act," said Jordan.

Jordan said that there is a certain rivalry that has been going on since he was a teen when it comes to outsiders entering other neighborhoods.

"Tomkins ain't going to Marcy, Marcy ain't going to Roosevelt, Roosevelt ain't going to Lefferts. Our children have been geographically locked into their own environment, and they feel that they have the right to tell everybody else where they can and where they can't go," Jordan says, "I don't know about this particular case, let's be clear on that, but that's how our children operate."

After the shooting, police detained nine people from a nearby apartment for questioning, but so far no one has been arrested.

Dantee's cousin survived. Sources told Eyewitness News that the 16-year-old victim was able to communicate with police before he died, but he declined to cooperate with the investigation.