By The newspaper
Aug 31, 2023, 10:25 AM EDT
A 15-year-old suspected gang member was captured on suspicion of killing a man by shooting him in the head during a confrontation at a bodega in Brooklyn (NYC).
The teenager was arrested Tuesday for the fatal shooting of 24-year-old Abdolaye Ba outside the “Best Food Mini Market” on the afternoon of August 21. The New York police charged the teen with murder and weapons possession, but did not release his name because he is a minor.
Ba was inside the warehouse on Blake Ave. near Pennsylvania Ave. in East New York around 3:30 p.m. when he got into an argument with the suspect. The fight spilled over outside, where the other person pulled out a gun and opened fire, shooting him in the head. He miraculously survived and paramedics took him to Brookdale University Hospital, where he died on Thursday the 24th, three days after he was shot.
Detectives identified the gunman from surveillance footage recovered at the scene. Despite his young age, he has several minor arrests and is affiliated with a local street gang, a police source said. The victim lived two blocks from the warehouse and was not part of a gang, the NYPD said.
“I hope whoever did this to her can’t sleep,” she said crying to the Daily News the victim’s older sister, Maly Ba (35), shortly after death. She “she was just a good person with a good heart, and she just walked out, just like that.”
All charges are mere accusations and those charged are presumed innocent until proven guilty in court.
Young people are protagonists in gun violence in New York as victims and perpetrators, particularly shootings and attacks with bladed weapons.
In September 2022, an NYPD report found that recidivism among teens had increased dramatically over the past five years and the number of gunmen and their underage victims had tripled.
70% of the inhabitants of NYC fear that they will be victims of a crime, according to an alarming survey released in July of this year.
Particularly in New York the interior and surroundings of warehouses are often crime scenes, both robberies and homicides. NYPD has warned since last year of growing insecurity in businesses, including violent attacks involving employees and owners.