A 15-year-old Upper East Side resident was fatally shot after leaving a Sweet 16 party at the 133 West 90th Street in Manhattan. Maurice McIver had been shot in the groin around 1 a.m. yesterday, outside the Wise Towers housing project; a few hours later at the hospital, he "was pronounced dead from blood loss because the bullet had severed an artery in his leg."
The police think McIver had gotten into a fight with someone before the party. They don't think that person attended the party. A neighbor saw some teens waiting before shooting McIver and fleeing. Robert Dominguez said, "I ran over and he was saying, 'Help me, mister! Mister, can you help me?'"
According to the Daily News, one witness said some "Harlem's west side [teens] started the fight" with McIver and others"from East Harlem." A Wise Towers resident told the NY Times he heard "East Side" and "West Side" being yelled, "The East Side kids come over here, representing the East Side, then the kids from over here want to represent... Everybody comes here because we have the basketball courts. This is not the first time that they get into fights and into beefs.”
McIver's friend called his mother, Janet Gaston, to tell her Maurice had been shot. Gaston said, "I would very much want someone to track down the individual who shot that gun. Someone there must know."
