Memorials sprout up for slain NYC high school basketball star
A pair of memorials have sprung up for the promising young Bronx basketball player who was shot dead Sunday — one inside the lobby of his apartment building and the other on the basketball court outside.
Dozens of multi-colored candles spelled out 17-year-old Brandon Hendrick’s nickname, “B Diddy 5,” inside the Morrisania Houses apartment building where he grew up, and a circle of candles adorned the court outside where he honed his hoops skills.
The memorials sprouted up just hours after Hendricks was shot and killed while at a friend’s birthday party in Morris Heights.
“It’s not fair,” neighbor Starasia Horton said Monday. “This is sad because he was a good kid. He didn’t deserve this.”
Hendricks, the just-graduated former captain of the James Monroe High School basketball team, was shot once in the neck shortly before midnight Sunday and was later pronounced dead at St. Barnabas Hospital.
Friends and neighbors set up the memorials Monday morning.
Alongside the candles on the court outside were two basketballs and a Philadelphia 76ers jersey.