Killings of 4 Teens, Within 6 Miles of Each Other, Shake Brooklyn

NEW YORK — On his 16th birthday, Justin Richey was at a playground near his Brooklyn home, helping his after-school group set up for a basketball tournament.

A little over 24 hours later, he was dead.

Known as “Chuck the Chaser” around the East New York neighborhood for his hustle earning money for shoveling snow and helping older residents run errands, Justin was “one of the good ones,” as neighbors put it.

He was shot several times on July 15 in the chest, back, abdomen and ribs by three assailants, according to police. One of the attackers was wearing a red bandanna, police said, a symbol associated with the Bloods gang. The circumstances of the murder have raised suspicions that the killing could be gang-related, but the police have said Justin, an honors student, was not known to have any gang affiliations.

He is one of four teenagers who were fatally shot or stabbed over a 10-day span this month within 6 miles of one another in Brooklyn. Latrell Brown, 16, was shot in the back of the head in Bedford-Stuyvesant on July 11. Three days later, Parlay Oller, 15, was stabbed in front of a laundromat in Brownsville, a victim of a “petty neighborhood beef,” according to police. Kyon Jackson, 15, died Tuesday after being shot in the torso in Bushwick. Arrests have been made in all four cases.

Through July 15, there were 158 murders in the city this year, nearly the same as the 160 that occurred in that time frame last year, according to the Police Department. But the number of children between 10 and 17 who were homicide victims has risen sharply. As of Wednesday, seven children between the ages of 10 and 17 have been murdered, according to the Police Department. There were two such cases all of last year.

Speaking to anti-violence activists at Pine Street and Blake Avenue in East New York, where Justin was killed, Inspector John Chell, commander of the 75th Precinct, expressed sadness and anger at the death of another young black teen.

“Young brothers should not be 16 years of age dying right now,” he said. “We’re tired of seeing our young brothers and sisters dying in the street.”

The vicious gang attack on Lesandro Guzman-Feliz, 15, who was killed outside a bodega in the Bronx in June, stunned the community and ignited outrage as footage and images from store surveillance cameras and cellphones spread on social media, as did the hashtag #JusticeforJunior, a reference to the boy’s nickname. Twelve men have been charged in the killing. Prosecutors said all the defendants are members of the Trinitarios, a highly organized and violent Dominican gang.

In recent years, the Police Department has credited its gang detective unit as a major factor in helping to reduce violent crimes across the city. In 2016, the department made about 100 targeted raids on gangs and arrested more than 1,000 people in the process.

In East New York, where Justin was a volunteer for No Kids Left Behind, an after-school program, Chell on Monday stressed that the police alone cannot solve the problem of the senseless killings of young black teenagers.

“We can’t ask the police to be on every corner,” he said.

In front of the former home of Parlay, the teen stabbed in front of the laundromat in Brownsville, candles spelled out “Lay,” his nickname.

A few stops away on the C train, there was a similar scene in front of Justin’s apartment building: more candles and posters covered in messages. “I can’t understand why they took you, man. I love you,” read one.