Shooting leaves 13-year-old Queens boy brain-dead as family weighs ending life support

The family of a 13-year-old boy who was shot outside a Dunkin’ store in Queens this week is weighing whether to take him off life support as police look for the shooter, his mother said Wednesday.

Vilene Griffith told Gothamist she may have to make the hardest decision of her life as her youngest son Sanjay Samuel is brain-dead at Cohen Children’s Medical Center, where he was taken in critical condition after the shooting in Cambria Heights on Monday.

“I’m speechless,” she said in a phone interview, adding that she was getting ready to return to the hospital. “Why Sanjay? Why my boy?”

Griffith said her son had been on his way to school when he was shot around 8:20 a.m. on the corner of Linden and Springfield boulevards. Police had no one in custody as of Wednesday and had not released a suspect description in connection with the incident. NYPD officials said they were investigating a possible motive for the shooting.

The corner near the Dunkin’ is a gathering place for students at several local high schools, according to local business workers, and features multiple bus stops. A 13-year-old student from one of those schools was fatally shot on the same corner in 2009, and two men were convicted of shooting him in 2013, news outlets previously reported.

Griffith said her son never felt unsafe near their Laurelton home, located less than 2 miles from where he was gunned down. NYPD data shows no shootings were recorded through Sept. 21 in the 105th Precinct, which includes Cambria Heights and other Eastern Queens neighborhoods. That was down from five by the same point last year.

Samuel had just started his first year of high school, and his mother said she had just finished filling out forms so he could play basketball there — his greatest passion besides music. She said everyone who knows Samuel is struggling to cope with his prognosis, including his two older brothers and two older sisters.

“His first-grade teacher, his second-grade teacher, his third-grade teacher, everyone is calling us for Sanjay,” Griffith said. “ Why you had to go and get a gun, and why you have to shoot Sanjay to kill him? What was Sanjay’s last word?”

Mayor Eric Adams called the shooting another example of "senseless gun violence" on Monday.

“Our hearts ache with the family and friends of this 13-year-old who is fighting for his life because of this epidemic,” he wrote in a social media post, adding that his administration would continue working to seize illegal guns and expand opportunities for young people.

Samuel’s family put together a GoFundMe campaign to help cover his medical expenses, including long-term rehabilitation if he survives. But Griffith said a CT scan on Tuesday determined he was brain-dead.

“I lose Sanjay and another mother lose their son,” she said, referring to potential consequences for the shooter. “I’m just trusting God right now.”

For more information about gun violence patterns across New York City, check out Gothamist’s map of shooting incidents over the past five years.