Suspected gunman in stray-bullet death of sports YouTuber busted: cops
A gunman who allegedly killed a sports YouTuber while aiming at someone else in Harlem last month has been arrested, the NYPD said this week.
Mohamed Sawaneh, 21, was nabbed Tuesday morning on murder charges stemming from the fatal July drive-by shooting of 37-year-old Jeremy Cummings.
“I didn’t do s–t,” he said as he was escorted out of the 28th Precinct a few hours after his arrest wearing a bright red hoodie and matching sweatpants, amNewYork reported.
Sawaneh, who lives in NYCHA’s Webster Houses in the Bronx, was arraigned Wednesday in Manhattan Criminal Court on murder charges.
He allegedly opened fire on a group of people including Cummings while driving a White Honda Accord at Eighth Avenue and West 118th Street on the afternoon of July 2, Manhattan prosecutors said.
Cummings was shot through the torso and dragged himself behind a vehicle for cover before collapsing, according to Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Dasha Kabakova.
Cummings ran the YouTube channel JermSportsTV, which counts more than 35,000 subscribers and where he posted short edited clips from sporting events and also of the football video game Madden.
Just minutes after the shooting, Sawaneh then fled the scene before crashing into a stopped car at a stoplight just a block away — abandoning his vehicle before robbing a 13-year-old at gunpoint for his Citibike, prosecutors said.
The cold-blooded killer left behind his cellphone at the crash site, which revealed selfies of him posing with a gun taken several days before shooting — in addition to a Google search for “how to put bullets” into a gun, Kabakova said.
He also snapped photos of the group Cummings was with just before spraying bullets at them.
Sawaneh, who had no prior criminal history, according to cops, then went to hideout in Ohio before he was arrested after arriving back in the Big Apple on a bus.
Cops said that Sawaneh’s motive remains under investigation, cops said.
In addition to one count of second-degree murder, he was charged with first-degree robbery, leaving the scene of an incident without reporting it and two counts of criminal possession of a firearm.
Judge Pamla A. Goldsmith remanded Sawaneh on the prosecutors’ request.
NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said that Cummings is believed to have been an unintended target.
“No criminal history, no gang affiliation. Prior to this incident, the victim is simply standing on the corner with a group of friends — about four or five gentlemen,” Kenny said.
Sawaneh returns to court on August 16.
— Additional reporting by Amanda Woods
