Police are currently investigating the shooting of 17-year-old Jenice Clark, who was shot in the stomach Sunday morning outside of the Stapleton housing development. Police believed Clark, who was about to graduate from high school, was in the middle of a crowd of about 50 people who were returning from a party. Neighbor Linda Strongtold the Daily News, "I was hanging the laundry in the backyard, and I heard three gunshots. When I went outside, I saw her lying on the ground with cops around her."
Clark was brought to the Richmond University Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead around 6 a.m. Police haven't been able to rule whether she was the intended target or if she got caught in a crossfire, but according to friends and family, Clark wasn't the type of teenager to get caught with a bad crowd. Her cousin told NY1, "It's very sad. She was 17 years old, loving child, getting ready to graduate from high school in two weeks and got accepted to some colleges...Jenice was a loving person. She never hurt nobody."
Friends created a makeshift memorial to Clark in the basketball courts of the Stapleton Houses. Strong said, "She was a good kid. She went to school every day. A lot of kids around here don't even go to school."
