16-Year-Old Killed By Bullet To The Head In Rush Hour Shootout At Flatbush And DeKalb Avenues
A 16-year-old boy is dead and an 18-year-old man is in the hospital after gunfire erupted along the Flatbush Avenue commercial strip between DeKalb Avenue and Fulton Street during evening rush hour yesterday, Monday, October 26.
Armani Hankins of Queens was shot in the head during the incident, which broke out near McDonald’s but ended over by Applebee’s at around 6:09pm and was described by police and elected officials as being a gang-related shooting, although it is not clear whether Hankins was targeted or a bystander. He was rushed to Brooklyn Hospital a few blocks away, where he was pronounced dead.
Hankins’ family described him as an aspiring lawyer and told the New York Times that he was only in the area with friends because they had gone shopping and flirting at the Atlantic Terminal mall. Family members could be heard outside Brooklyn Hospital last night screaming “Don’t tell me he died,” according to the New York Daily News.
The slain teen’s great aunt said his father had just told him he was going to have a new little brother.
“Enough is enough. This gun violence has got to stop. It’s got to stop,” [she] said.
The unidentified 18-year-old was shot in the left ankle and is in stable condition at Methodist Hospital.
No arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing.
The busyness of the day left numerous witnesses, many of whom ran screaming for cover and others running towards the teenager lying in a pool of blood in front of the entrance to the DeKalb Avenue B/Q subway station.
“I work here handing out Metro newspapers and couldn’t believe it,” said Lala Matthews, who said she had been ready to go home with a friend who was on his way to work a shift at McDonald’s when the gunfire broke out. “We heard pow pow pow. People were running and the next thing I know, a kid was on the ground, everyone was trying to help.”
“There are always fights that spill out,” added Matthews’ friend, Christopher George. “What needs to be done is along this stretch, after school, is a line of 20-30 cops because it is never enough.”
Joshua and Melanie Colon of Clinton Hill agreed that not enough is being done in the area to curb gun violence in the area, which they say has gotten worse since the days when they would hang out here with friends.
Today, a mere 13 hours after the shooting and just a few feet from a residual blood stain on the sidewalk, while walking their eight-year-old daughter to school, they said “it’s getting to the point where we’re thinking we have to move.”
“It’s nothing new; it happens every day. This is a forgotten neighborhood,” said Melanie. “Kids think they’re grown nowadays. There were fighting and shootings back when we were growing up, but it wasn’t as thick then as now. They’re kids. They should be home studying or playing video games.”
“These days, an argument leads to being dead. When I was growing up, we’d fight one-on-one,” added Joshua. “The city needs more police officers in this area because they’re building up [developments] and there are more people. They need to bring back stop-and-frisk. . . Civilians are shooting each other, police and civilians are shooting each other, when’s it going to stop? I don’t know how young kids get their hands on weapons.”
Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams and Councilmember Laurie Cumbo also agreed that more needs to be done to combat gun violence, calling for more state investment in local anti-gun violence initiatives, as well as more manpower for the 88th precinct and more city support for creating safe spaces for youth to hang out, study, and work after school.