17-year-old basketball player shot dead in her sister’s arms: unbridled violence in New York
Shayma Roman, the 17-year-old basketball player victim of two stray bullets yesterday on a Brooklyn sidewalk, was in front of her sister, in whose arms she died.
“She saw what happened…she was there,” he told the newspaper today. New York Post Shakem Roman, older brother of the girls. “I don’t know how my (other) sister is going to take it. She is at her grandmother’s house or at her friends’ house. She can’t come home…they shared a room, she can’t”. He added that her sisters were so close that some considered them twins.
A neighbor who witnessed the shooting but asked not to be named said Tayma Roman hugged her sister Shayma and cried while waiting for an ambulance to arrive to the Crown Heights neighborhood.
“She (Shayma) was coming out of the building and just made it to the stairs… That’s her blood,” the neighbor added, pointing to a dark stain on the sidewalk.
The victim, who lived a mile away on St. Mark’s Avenue, had just left a visit to the 1225 Eastern Parkway apartment building near Rochester Avenue yesterday at about 6:15 p.m. was hit twice by stray bullets fired by a couple of men, one in the arm and one in the chest, police sources said.
When police officers responded to the scene, in a zone of two gangs at war, Roman was found face down on the pavement in a pool of blood along with empty beer bottles and a pair of dice, the sources said. She was pronounced dead at Brookdale Hospital less than 20 minutes later.
Another resident said that Roman was well-liked in the neighborhood. “A star basketball player, a star student. She was really loved by everyone.”
Police have identified two suspects from surveillance footage, but no arrests have been made. Anyone with information should call to 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) and in Spanish 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). Also through the page crimestoppers.nypdonline.org or by text to 274637 (CRIMES), followed by TIP577. All communications are strictly confidential.
The number of gunmen and their underage victims has tripled in recent years in NYC, confirmed a recent memo from the NYPD, the nation’s largest police force. In NYC gun violence has been a big challenge for ex-cop mayor Eric Adamswho since taking office in January has encountered obstacles within his own Democratic party and Black Lives Matter (BLM) leaders in dealing with the crisis.
