Grief-stricken NYC mom laments shooting of 15-year-old son as 5 teens are fatally shot in less than a week
The grief-stricken mother of a 15-year-old boy gunned down in Brooklyn this week railed against soaring city youth violence — saying it “doesn’t make sense.”
Tristan Sanders – one of five teenagers fatally shot since the spurt of violence began Thursday – was mortally struck in the chest around 7:20 p.m. Sunday on the grounds of the New York City Housing Authority’s Albany Houses on St. Marks Avenue in Crown Heights, police said.
Sanders – an only child who had just started his freshman year at Boys and Girls High School, loved “music, basketball and family,” shaken mom Shanae Sanders told The Post in an exclusive Tuesday morning interview.
“He was a good kid. He was a happy boy. He didn’t deserve this,” Shanae Sanders recalled of her slain son as her legs rattled and she tapped her fingers on her thigh before cradling her face in her hands.
She last saw Tristan “a few hours” before the shooting as he left “for a candle-lighting for a friend.”
“We spoke on the phone and we said we loved each other,” she said of their last conversation.
Shanae Sanders said she learned the devastating news when police knocked on her door, and then went to the Kings County Hospital Center, where cops said Tristan succumbed to his injuries.
“I told him I loved him,” she said.
Her son’s death “left an emptiness in me,” the devastated mother added.
Tristan’s distraught mom added that she was “always going to miss waking him up for school.”
The grieving mom was bewildered by the recent onslaught of violence targeting teens.
“This s—t is crazy,” she said. “It doesn’t make any sense.”
Tristan’s autn Taniqua Quashie said the city and Mayor Eric Adams “need to do more” to fight the problem.
“It’s crazy. It’s sad,” Quashie said about her nephew and the other teens recently killed. “It shouldn’t be happening….never thought this would happen here.
“We want justice for [Tristan].”
Tristan, one of 16 grandchildren, was looking forward to joining his high school basketball team and “couldn’t wait to grow taller,” Quashie said.
He played basketball with his cousins – some of whom haven’t yet been told what happened.
“The ones that know are taking it hard,” Quashie said. “They are crying. They are still trying to process it.”
“We had some [others] over for the weekend, they were with him,” she added. “They don’t know. They only know something is wrong but they don’t know what. We are going to bring them over and tell them.”
Meanwhile, Quashie said her nephew’s death has left her “in shock.”
“I still can’t believe it,” she said. “We are empty inside right now. It’s hard on [his mother]. She has barely slept since this happened. She is just quiet and stays by herself. She doesn’t look at his pictures.
“It’s like a nightmare,” Tristan’s aunt added. “I still expect him to come through the door. He was here everyday. I still feel his presence in here.”
The motive for Tristan’s murder remained under investigation Tuesday.
Tristan was killed about 24 hours before Joshua Sparrow, 18, was shot in the head and torso on Rev. James A. Polite Avenue near East 164th Street in Longwood just after 7 p.m. Monday, cops said.
Sparrow was taken to Lincoln Medical Center, but did not survive, police said.
Investigators believe the shooting may have been gang-related, sources said.
A day earlier, Taearion Mungo, 16, was fatally shot in the chest around 11:45 p.m. Saturday outside a building on Auburn Place within NYCHA’s Walt Whitman Houses in Fort Greene, cops said.
He was rushed to Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, where he was also pronounced dead, police said.
That shooting may have also stemmed from gang violence, sources said.
Mungo, who lived in the nearby Ingersoll Houses, has two prior gun-related arrests, one of which is sealed, according to police sources.
His most recent arrest came around 1:30 a.m. June 16 – when he was found in possession of a loaded gun during a car stop, the sources said.
At that time, investigators said he was affiliated with a local gang, according to the sources.
Another teen, identified by the NYPD as Malachi Deberry, 15, was shot in the head on Lenox Road near Rockaway Parkway in Brownsville around 8:40 p.m. Friday, cops said.
Deberry – who lived several blocks away – was rushed to Maimonides Medical Center, where he was initially listed in critical condition before succumbing to his injuries, police said.
Police are still investigating the circumstances leading to the shooting.
The surge of teen violence began when Clarence Jones, 16, was fatally shot early Thursday in Harlem, cops said.
Jones was blasted in the torso just after 1:30 a.m. at West 124 Street and Lenox Avenue, authorities said.
He was rushed to Harlem Hospital, 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.
Police are seeking two suspects on Razor scooters, sources said.
In another act of teen violence, a 14-year-old boy was blasted in the left ankle and right thigh around Monday at around 4 p.m. at East 151 Street and Grand Concourse in Mott Haven.
Another 14-year-old — who has six prior busts and is wanted for two robberies — was busted a short time later and charged with attempted murder, assault, criminal possession of a weapon and reckless endangerment, cops and sources said.
Law enforcement sources blamed the violence on the state’s contentious Raise the Age law – enacted several years ago – which raised the age of criminal responsibility to 18, and allowed for criminal defendants to remain in juvenile facilities as old as the age of 21.
“There needs to be more deference in our family court system,” one source said. “The system put in place by the Raise the Age act has not effectively deterred juveniles from committing heinous crime. The very law meant to protect the young is in fact hurting them.“
Another griped, “You decriminalized crime for juveniles and now you’re shocked that they’re all dying in the street?”
A total of 1,827 kids under the age of 18 were victims of felony assaults in the city so far this year through Sept. 30, the latest data available, the NYPD said Tuesday.
That’s up from the same period in 2023, when there were 1,709 victims.
Murders, however, are down – with 17 minors killed within the city through Sept. 30, cops said.
A total of 27 young people were killed during that period last year.
