A 16-year-old suspect has been arrested for gunning down a Brooklyn teen planning to join the Army after graduating high school.
The suspect was nabbed by NYPD cops at his home on Wednesday and charged with murder and weapon possession. Police did not release his name because he’s a juvenile.
The adolescent suspect is accused of shooting Graig Bassett as the 17-year-old victm left YaYa Deli on Saratoga Ave. near Prospect Place in Brownsville just before 5 p.m. March 15.
The shooter was also inside the deli and had just bought a bottle of water when he shot Bassett, police sources said.
“Two shots rang out and he was lying on the floor,” a man who witnessed the shooting and did not want to be identified told the Daily News. “When they lifted up his shirt, he was hit in the front. He was bleeding from the mouth.”
Bassett died after being rushed to Interfaith Medical Center.
The suspect was identified through surveillance video cops released showing the gunman opening fire, police sources said.
The shooting was sparked by gang rivalries in the neighborhood, investigators believe. Bassett is not believed to be in a gang, but had ties to people who are, police sources said.
Bassett was set to graduate from Brownsville Academy this year and enlist in the Army, his distraught father, Craig Bassett, told the Daily News last month.
“A few more months and he would’ve been [in the Army],” Craig Bassett, 53, said. “He was definitely going to go.”
While a life in the Army could be dangerous, the city streets proved to be deadly, the heartbroken dad said.
“I know these streets,” he said. “I rather you die in the military than on these streets. I rather you fight a war and pass away than die in these streets like he did.”
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