A 16-year-old boy died Sunday night after being shot in the head outside of a Harlem housing complex. Juwan Tavarez was surrounded by loved ones last night as he lay in a coma; his father, Marco Wan, told the Daily News, "We don't want to pull the plug. My daughter's up there and she said 'He squeezed my hand.'"
Tavarez was mortally wounded just before 5 p.m. Friday night outside of the Jefferson Houses on Third Avenue between East 114th and 115th Streets in what an NYPD spokesperson called a "crew-related" shooting. Still, Fancia Tavarez, the boy's foster mother, characterized him as a studious kid who steered clear of gangs. "He comes from love, not from hate," she told the News.
One nearby resident complained to the Post that construction scaffolding around the housing project has become a catalyst for violence. "This makes it very dangerous around here," the woman said. "It gives these kids looking for trouble a place to hide." Last summer, Mayor de Blasio announced that NYCHA had removed over 43,000 feet of unnecessary sidewalk shedding at public housing sites that don't have active construction; the scaffolding at the Jefferson Houses reportedly went up three months ago.
No arrests have been made in connection with the case, and the police currently do not have a suspect. "Somebody knows who did it," Wan told the News. "The person who did this, they will be found."
