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Suspects Held In Rhode Island In Shooting That Killed Bronx Teen

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Two suspects were being held in Rhode Island this weekend in connection with a shooting that killed a teenage boy in the South Bronx.

The suspects being held for questioning in the shooting that killed Alphonza Bryant III, 17, on April 22, have not been charged and were not identified by police. But police did say they were both residents of the Bronx and members of the Latin Kings street gang.

The pair was being held on separate outstanding warrants in Cumberland, R.I., police said. One suspect, 21, has made statements implicating himself in the deadly shooting, while the other, 23, has not.

Bryant was shot and killed on the night of Monday, April 22, just weeks before he was set to march for high school commencement at the Urban Assembly Bronx Studio for Writers and Artists, according to a New York Daily News report.

He had taken a shower after coming home from playing basketball, and had gone out Fox Street in the Foxhurst section of the Bronx to hang out with friends, the newspaper reported.

Two suspects walked past the group around 8:15 p.m., and later came up a second time with a gun, the paper reported. They fired shots at the group and hit Bryant once in the midsection, the newspaper reported.

The suspects as of Sunday were awaiting extradition from Rhode Island, where they were arrested on Saturday in a joint effort by Cumberland police, the NYPD Bronx Homicide Squad, and NYPD 42nd Precinct Detective Squad detectives.

On Monday, the suspects will be returned to the Bronx for lineups, police said.

Police believe the shooting stemmed from a gang dispute, but Bryant and his friends were not the intended targets. The group the suspects intended to shoot had left the streetcorner, and the suspects fired at Bryant and his friends instead, police believe.

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