Mistaken Identity? Conn. Teen Killed In Bronx Drive-By
NEW YORK (CBS 2/1010 WINS) -- There's heartbreak and outrage in the Bronx Saturday night after a teenaged boy was killed in a drive-by shooting while visiting relatives – and it's believed the boy wasn't the intended target.
The 16-year-old victim, Tashawn Bromfield, was shot and killed in the courtyard of an apartment building in the Eastchester section of the Bronx, reports CBS 2's Dave Carlin.
The teen lived in Connecticut, and was just visiting when his life was taken.
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"He was a good kid, and he just did not deserve this, he did not deserve this at all," friend Destiny Robinson said.
Robinson and others who were close to Bromfield say the friendly, popular and athletic high school student was in the wrong place at the right time. Investigators suspect it was a case of mistaken identity.
"I did hear gunshots. I thought it was firecrackers at first," Eastchester resident Kala Williams said.
An SUV rounded the corner on Fenton Avenue, and an unidentified gunman fired at least two shots out of the passenger side window. A bullet hit Bromfield in the chest, and he was pronounced dead at Jacobi Medical Center.
"Unfortunate incident. The young man was just in the wrong place at the wrong time," a witness said. "Whether or not they had prior arguments, that's unknown at this time."
The killers remain on the loose.
"A little boy, what do you need to take a little boy's life for?" Williams said.
"Just catch them. That's all I want – catch them," Robinson said.
Friends say the teen was eager to return home to Meriden, Connecticut, where he was getting ready to go back to school and play football.
Residents of the tight-knit community are shocked by the senseless crime.
"Kids loved him, he got along well with everybody, and it's a piece of our heart that's torn away right now," Bromfield's football coach, Bob Zito, said.
"I loved him so much," said friend Karim St. Luce. "I don't understand why somebody would do this to him."
"They took something so remarkable away from us, but he's never going to be gone," friend Danielle Tavallo said.
Investigators have video from a security camera that shows the vehicle speeding away from the scene, but the video is grainy and hard to see. What investigators say they need is more witnesses coming forward to help them solve the crime.
No arrests have been made in the case.
