Gut-wrenching photos show dad of teen killed in NYC shooting wail with grief where son was shot
A 16-year-old boy was fatally shot in Harlem early Thursday – leaving his father wailing with grief at the scene that his son had been “taken” from him.
Clarence Jones was shot in the chest around 1:37 a.m. at West 124 Street and Lenox Avenue, according to the NYPD.
The teen was transported by first responders to NYC Health and Hospitals Harlem, where he was pronounced dead.
Jones’ father collapsed at the scene and cried out that his teenage son had been “taken” from him, gut-wrenching photos showed.
It was not immediately clear if the father witnessed the shooting or if he arrived after the violence.
When reached by The Post, the grieving dad declined to comment on his son’s killing.
Jones’ official cause of death will be determined by the Medical Examiner.
The investigation into the shooting is still ongoing.
It is unclear if the teen was targeted.
Police are seeking two suspects on Razor scooters, sources said.
Later on Thursday morning, several relatives and family friends were seen crying and hugging one another outside the building where Jones’ father and paternal grandmother live, not far from the crime scene.
“We don’t know about a target. We don’t know about nothing…All we know is someone killed our nephew,” Jones’ aunt, Desiree Murray, tearfully told The Post.
“He was a sweet kid, man, sweet kid……just caught up in the wrong, you know, the wrong crowd, whatever, but overall, he was a good kid,” she added.
“His future plan was to go to school, do the right thing and make a life for himself. His life was cut short because of that f–king idiot.
“His father fought for his son,” she added.
Aunt Dennille House said that she did not know where Jones was going when he was shot.
“He probably was just going to the store. I don’t know,” she said. “He was not far away from home.
“It’s right in the neighborhood,” she railed. “You think you would feel safe in your own neighborhood?”
Another aunt, Alicia Cox, called the shooting “senseless.”
“Then you have this bogus mayor that says crime is down, there is no crime, the gun violence is so low, but it’s constantly happening over and over and over again and we’re sick,” she said.
“I’m sick of seeing mothers crying over their dead children,” she went on. “The violence has to stop. [Mayor Eric Adams] has to do something.”
House agreed.
“No parent should have to bury their child,” she said. “Anytime the phone rings, 1, 2, 3 in the morning, it’s never good news.”
All three aunts emphasized that the community in the building looks out for one another – particularly the young people.
“To me, he’s like a son, even though he’s my nephew, but he was raised like a son,” House said.
Cox said everyone in the building looks out for each other.
“ This was not just the mother and father‘s child,” Cox said. “This was all of us. We are all family, this is our kid.”
House said that she last saw Jones on Monday coming from a store at 118th Street and Fifth Avenue
Meanwhile, a stray bullet from the shooting pierced the passenger side window of a Lyft nearby — narrowly missing the driver, who was injured by broken glass.
Investigators at the scene were spotted combing the interior of the rideshare car.
