By Marlyn Montilla
Jul 24, 2023, 14:54 PM EDT
The New York Police Department managed to identify the suspect in the killing of a 15-year-old boy during a shooting in broad daylight on a Brooklyn street last week.
The alleged murderer is a teenager, according to officials who announced that they are searching for 17-year-old Leopoldo Nash for his involvement in the crime.
Nash is accused of shooting Faridun Mavlonov, a student at James Madison High School, in the back as he was about to shoot another person on 62nd Street near 20th Avenue in Bensonhurst around 1:00 p.m. on July 17.
The victim was rushed to Maimonides Medical Center and lost his life on Tuesday morning.
Mavlonov was walking with a group of six youths when Nasj allegedly shot them seven times, wounding him in the back, officials said.
The suspect had reportedly aimed at another of the teens but missed and hit Mavlonov, according to the New York Post.
The shooter and his target were arguing at Franklin Delano Roosevelt High School summer school and previously agreed to meet after school for a fist fight before the shooting.
The young man who died, who lived less than a mile from where he was fatally wounded, had dreamed of being a UFC fighter and was a loyal friend, one of his teammates said after his death.
“He was like a big brother to everyone,” said a 15-year-old friend. “He cared about them.”
The 15-year-old, who also attended the same judo hall as Mavlonov, called him a mature beyond his age friend as the eldest of six children from Uzbekistan.
“When you need someone to talk to, he will always be there. Even if you didn’t have money, you’d be like, ‘Yo, I’m hungry,’ he would put you first… It doesn’t matter what it’s like, whether he’s hungry or not,” she said. “He will put you first and he will make sure to take care of you.”
On the other hand, at his funeral the adolescent’s father cried for the short life his son had to live.
“I have five children and he was my boy,” Firdavs Mavlonov sobbed. “He has helped me in everything. He took care of everything. He was 15 years old. He did not see life ”.
Also, Mayor Eric Adams attended Faridun’s funeral, where he expressed in front of the crowded mosque that the young man was a “baby that was abruptly taken from us.”
In this sense, he denounced the violence among the youth of New York and stated that the authorities must remove weapons from the streets.
“And it is our obligation to take this painful moment and make it a useful moment, and rededicate our lives to saving the children of our city,” Adams said. “Young people are killing young people at an alarming rate.”
The suspect has not been arrested so far. He was last seen fleeing the scene on 20th Avenue toward 62nd Street.
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