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| 16-Year-Old Is Fatally Shot While Playing Basketball in Brooklyn, Police Say | 16-Year-Old Is Fatally Shot While Playing Basketball in Brooklyn, Police Say |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| A 16-year-old boy was shot and killed on Friday afternoon while playing basketball at a playground in Brooklyn, the police said. | A 16-year-old boy was shot and killed on Friday afternoon while playing basketball at a playground in Brooklyn, the police said. |
| Officers found the boy, Oluwadurotimi Joseph Oyebola, known as Timi, with a gunshot wound to his head shortly before 4 p.m. in Brownsville, the authorities said. He had been playing basketball after school with three friends at Chester Playground, which is next to Public School 396, when at least one or two people fired shots from the southern end of the park, Assistant Chief Jeffrey Maddrey told reporters. | Officers found the boy, Oluwadurotimi Joseph Oyebola, known as Timi, with a gunshot wound to his head shortly before 4 p.m. in Brownsville, the authorities said. He had been playing basketball after school with three friends at Chester Playground, which is next to Public School 396, when at least one or two people fired shots from the southern end of the park, Assistant Chief Jeffrey Maddrey told reporters. |
| Two males were seen fleeing south on Chester Street, the police said. | Two males were seen fleeing south on Chester Street, the police said. |
| The boy was taken to Brookdale Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The police said that they did not know the motive for the killing and that it was possible that the boy was not the target of the shooting. | The boy was taken to Brookdale Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The police said that they did not know the motive for the killing and that it was possible that the boy was not the target of the shooting. |
| Oluwadurotimi lived in Jamaica, Queens, and attended a charter school near the playground, Deputy Chief Michael Kemper said. The shots were fired more than 100 feet away from the boys, Chief Kemper said. | Oluwadurotimi lived in Jamaica, Queens, and attended a charter school near the playground, Deputy Chief Michael Kemper said. The shots were fired more than 100 feet away from the boys, Chief Kemper said. |
| “He was a really, really good kid,” he said. “There’s a strong possibility that he was the unintended target of this bullet.” | |
| Oluwadurotimi was in 11th grade at Brooklyn Ascend High School in Brownsville, said Steven F. Wilson, the chief executive of the Ascend charter school network. Oluwadurotimi’s school is about a half-mile west of the playground where he was shot. | |
| Oluwadurotimi moved to New York with his parents and sister from Lagos, Nigeria, in 2013, said his father, David Oyebola. | |
| “He was a good boy. He was my strength,” Mr. Oyebola said. “It’s a big loss that I can never recover from.” | |
| Oluwadurotimi’s favorite subjects in school were math and science, his father said, and he wanted to have a career as a doctor or engineer. In November, he was scheduled to accept a national award for academic achievement at Columbia University. | |
| Mr. Oyebola, 49, a minister at the Abundant Life Christian Center in Brooklyn, said his son was active in the church and was supposed to attend a worship session on Friday. He said he often worried about his son being in the neighborhood near his school because he had heard about shootings there. | |
| He would ask Oluwadurotimi to tell him when he arrived at school and left for the day, Mr. Oyebola said. At 5 p.m., when he received a call saying his son had been shot, he rushed to the hospital to see him. | |
| “Nothing can replace for me his position,” he said. “Even if I had another son, I could not replace him. He was my only son.” | |
| Mr. Wilson, the charter school’s executive, said Oluwadurotimi was a dedicated student who often stayed at school into the evening to study and meet with his teachers. He was quiet but witty, and he was so passionate about basketball that he often carried a ball around with him, Mr. Wilson said. | |
| “Oluwadurotimi’s future was bright, and it is simply unfathomable that it was cut short so heinously,” he said. | “Oluwadurotimi’s future was bright, and it is simply unfathomable that it was cut short so heinously,” he said. |
| Madeline Sanders, 40, a mother of three who lives near the park and attended the nearby public school, said the shooting made her anxious because her son plays basketball there. | Madeline Sanders, 40, a mother of three who lives near the park and attended the nearby public school, said the shooting made her anxious because her son plays basketball there. |
| Gesturing to the block that had been roped off by the police, Ms. Sanders said her siblings had a barbecue there just last weekend and she had considered it a safe place. | |
| “This is broad daylight and a full schoolyard,” Ms. Sanders said. “Now it’s like, ‘Are our kids safe?’ And you want to believe your kids are safe in the neighborhood we grew up.” | “This is broad daylight and a full schoolyard,” Ms. Sanders said. “Now it’s like, ‘Are our kids safe?’ And you want to believe your kids are safe in the neighborhood we grew up.” |
| Her husband, Richard Sanders, 44, said he believed it was a safe community, but that there was a problem with teenagers getting ahold of guns that must be solved. | Her husband, Richard Sanders, 44, said he believed it was a safe community, but that there was a problem with teenagers getting ahold of guns that must be solved. |
| “They bring the guns to the basketball court,” he said. “Unbelievable.” | “They bring the guns to the basketball court,” he said. “Unbelievable.” |
| At about 10 p.m., congregants from Mr. Obeyola’s church entered his house in Queens to pray with his family. | |
| “We believe that in the last moments of his life, the Lord had him,” a preacher said. “He is sleeping in the flesh, but alive in the soul.” |