A 17-year-old boy was shot in the head and killed inside a Brooklyn business Wednesday evening.
Ahmir Jordan, 17, took a bullet to the head around 8:20 p.m. Wednesday inside an East New York business on New Lots Avenue, police said. The teen was rushed to One Brooklyn Health-Brookdale University Hospital Medical Center by EMS, where he was later pronounced dead, according to the NYPD.
A 35-year-old male was also grazed by a bullet on his right arm and was taken to the hospital in stable condition, cops said.
An older woman was seen sobbing behind the crime scene tape in the aftermath of the shooting. “Why did he have to die before me? I didn’t want him to die before me. Why, oh why?” The heartbroken woman cried out.
Loved ones gathered near the scene and were playing gospel music late Wednesday night.
A neighbor who has lived in the area for 12 years said it has “been years” since someone was shot in the neighborhood. “No mother should have to bury their child. Especially 17 years old,” the neighbor, who declined to provide her name, told a reporter at the scene.
“That is heartbreaking. And that’s from one mother to another,” she continued. “Do you know how a mother feels to come outside and have to identify your child? My heart goes out to that family. That’s a baby. He was a baby.”
An employee at a homeless shelter across the street from the shooting said he “heard gunshots” from inside the building. “I was inside the shelter and I ducked. Everybody ducked. Then I came outside to see what was going on,” the unidentified worker said.
“And I saw two men running down New Lots Avenue. They looked young, like teenagers,” he observed.
No arrests have been made as of Wednesday night, police said. The investigation remains ongoing.
In the viral moment that preceded this outpouring of grief, a 17-year-old boy lost his life to gun violence inside a commercial establishment in Brooklyn’s East New York neighborhood. The shooting also left a 35-year-old man wounded, though he survived in stable condition. The scene drew a heavy police response and left a community shaken by a sudden act of bloodshed in a place where residents said such violence had become rare.
The NYPD has not released a description of any suspects beyond the worker’s account of two young men fleeing the area, and detectives continue to investigate the circumstances that led to Jordan’s death.