Saturday, July 19, 2008

Boy shot dead outside Bed-Stuy apts.

By Tanangachi Mfuni and Ethan Rouen
NY Daily News, Sat. 7/29/08

A popular Brooklyn teenager who hoped to go to college was shot dead as he sat on a bench with a pal outside a Bedford-Stuyvesant housing project Friday, police and relatives said.

The youth, identified by his family as Bertrand Jocelyn, 17, took one bullet in the head at 7:37 p.m. His unidentified friend escaped unharmed. The shooter fled and was at large Friday night.

Word of the teen's death spread quickly through the Sumner Houses, drawing more than 100 people to a candlelight vigil at the bench where he died. Most of those in the gathering were young people who placed candles on and around the bench and left flowers and messages.

Jocelyn's father, Louis, 63, a Haitian immigrant, struggled to cope with his youngest child's killing, saying several times, "Please don't use the word 'dead.'"

Full story here.


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