The police arrested the man who fired the shot that hit a 16-year-old boy who looked outside his window earlier this week. Tavin Alves, a quiet ninth grader who was shot in the head and found slumped against a wall by his 5-year-old brother, was taken off a respirator by his family on Thursday; yesterday, they held a Stop Gun Violence rally.
With Alves' death, police were looking for a murderer, not just a shooter, and had apparently developed enough leads to make 29-year-old Sean Gordon turn himself in. The Daily News described the circumstances of the shooting:
Cops said Gordon was in his Bushwick apartment with one of his girlfriends last Tuesday when his second lover busted in on them, starting a fight that spilled into the street.
"I'll get someone to have you killed," one woman shouted, according to cops.
Gordon then reached for his gun and fired three rounds into the air, yelling, "You'll have me killed?" said Deputy Chief Raymond Ferrari, the commanding officer of the Brooklyn Detectives Bureau.
Ferrarri added, "I don't know what else to call it but bravado. He didn't know [he killed the boy] until the next morning when he saw it in the paper." Alves is believed to have stuck his head out his window when he heard the fighting.
A member of the Bloods, Gordon has a lengthy arrest record; he was charged with second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon. His mother called upon Alves' mother Angella Clarke to apologize. Clarke said, "She came to me and we spoke mother to mother. We held and cried. She apologized over and over again." Still, she said, "I have to live without my son. I have to see him in the cemetery."
Alves' family is accepting donation to help defray costs of Tavin's funeral. Donations can be mailed to State Senator Eric Adams' office at 572 Flatbush Ave., Brooklyn, N.Y. 11225.. Clarke told the Daily News, "I'm asking anyone with a heart to help us. I'm praying for help."
