New and Old Crimes With Student Victims

Thirteen-year-old Bramdon Ragnot was found in a Brooklyn alley, shot in the head, yesterday afternoon. He was discovered around 5PM by a Marine Park neighbor who told the Daily News, "I didn't know he was shot. I thought he was just beat up. I said, 'I know it hurts, but keep your eyes open.'"

Another neighbor told the Post that a teen had asked to use a phone after the shooting, "He banged on my door very hard, and...said he was a neighbor. But I've never seen him before. He tried to make a call, but he didn't get any answer."

No shell casings were found in the alley, and police don't know the cause of the incident. Ragnot, who lives two blocks from where he was found, underwent surgery at Kings County Hospital and is in critical condition. Last Friday, Ragnot, described as an honors student, had graduated from Shell Bank School (IS 14).

In similar news, police say they have a suspect in the 2003 murder of Matthew Hall. Hall, an 18-year-old Hunter College sophomore, as well as a "poet, vegetarian and devotee of Zen Buddhism" according to the Post, was leaving a meeting at 126th Street and 5th Avenue in Harlem when he was shot in the back. The meeting was for the Universal Zulu Nation, which the Times describes as "a group that promoted peace and understanding through hip-hop music."

The suspect was actually being questioned about a 2005 Harlem robbery-murder when he implicated himself in Hall's death.