The fifteen-year-old Steven Estévez died after being hospitalized after being shot in the head by his brother inside his home in Staten Island (NYC).
Yesterday a coroner declared his death a homicide. Police were called to the apartment on Thompson St. near Bay St. in Stapleton Heights at 11:50 pm on February 17, where they found Estevez on the floor with a gunshot wound to the head.
The victim’s older brother, a 17-year-old, admitted to police that he had shot him “by accident,” a senior NYPD source said. Doctors took him to Richmond University Medical Center, where he died the next day, he reported today. Daily News.
The gunman claimed he was playing with the gun when it went off, injuring his brother. Two other teens were in the apartment when the shooting occurred, but no adults were there.
The older brother was arrested for assault and possession of weapons. He was ordered held without bail during a brief arraignment proceeding in Staten Island Criminal Court on Friday. His name has not been released by police because he is a minor, but The Legal Aid Society has identified him as David Estevez.
The deceased teenager was a student at Ralph R. McKee Career and Technical Education High School and his classmates made a makeshift memorial with votive candles for him outside the house. The Estevez family has not returned home since the shooting, the building’s superintendent said yesterday.
The Staten Island district attorney’s office will present the case against the brother before a grand jury this week. Depending on how they weigh the evidence, the defendant could face charges from reckless endangerment to manslaughter.
It was not immediately clear how the older brother got the gun, as it did not belong to their parents, the source said. He is being represented by the Legal Aid Society, which called the shooting an “incredibly tragic case.”
“Out of respect for our client, his family and the community, we ask the public to refrain from jumping to conclusions and to respect the family’s privacy during this extraordinarily difficult time of grief,” a spokesperson said. “We will have more to say on this case in the coming days, weeks and months after a thorough review and investigation.”
All charges are mere accusations and those charged are presumed innocent until proven guilty in court.
In a similar case, in August a 14-year-old boy was arrested for fatally shooting his friend of the same age while they were “playing” with a gun in the lobby of an apartment building in The Bronx (NYC).
A month later, a 17-year-old girl was shot to death inside a car in Queens (NYC) in an apparent accidental shot caused by a fifteen-year-old brother of her boyfriend.