Shooting Victim's Family: "We Should Have Left NY"

The family of the 15-year-old girl who was fatally shot in front of a Queens housing project says they had moved out of the project to escape the violence. Brandon Bethea was killed late Saturday night when she was visiting friends at the Redfern Houses; she had been dancing with friends in a courtyard.

Police say Bethea was an innocent bystander when the gunfire rang out, and her brother thinks it was a gang turf war, telling the Daily News, "They've been going at it for years." Her stepfather Robert Drakeford said they moved to Jamaica because Brandon's friend was killed by a stray bullet, "I guess we should have moved further. We should have left New York altogether.”

Her mother grieved, "We were supposed to be shopping for a prom dress, but now we're going to be shopping for a coffin." The police are still looking for the shooter.

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By Jen Chung in News on May 19, 2008 3:15 PM

Comments [rss]

tsol

The War on Poverty has been a quagmire for 40 years- we need to pull out now!

JacqueMehoff

shocking? sad to say it's almost par for the course.

ABC news did a follow up story on the teen from some Spelling Bee movie. even with her brain smarts she got knocked up at seventeen.

I wonder what's the siren song from the Projects?

it's not just the females but the males, too. I've met some parents who are at their wits end.

Albert Sharpton

She was shot because she was pregnant or so i heard from the niggas down the block.

GOP

Shooting in the projects? Since when?!?!?!

schadenfreudian mensch

Strangely enough this past weekend the Daily News revisited the two year old murder of Tiesha Sargeant who was going place before her life was cut short. She went to all the prestigious schools, got scholarships, and went on to work at Credit Suisse and then a job as a Web designer at Condé Nast. Yet, She got drawn back to the hood, like this girl, by shacking up with a pot dealer boyfriend who has no idea who shot her in their apartment while he was there.

http://gothamist.com/2006/05/17/more_clues_in_b.php

jaja007

They should have just left the projects. That's all.

cncrocket

She's kind of right. NYC is a a terrible place to be a kid, let alone a poor minority kid. PARENTS: IF YOU LOVE YOUR KIDS, TRY TO LEAVE NEW YORK.