Suspect Arrested In Fatal Shooting Outside Fort Greene Applebee's

Jen Chung

Published Oct 31, 2015

Modified Oct 31, 2015

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(David Torres)

The police have arrested a 17-year-old suspect in the killing of a 16-year-old boy and wounding of an 18-year-old male on a Brooklyn sidewalk earlier this week.

Gunfire broke out in front of the Applebee's in Fort Greene, at Flatbush Avenue Extension and Dekalb Avenue, around 6 p.m. on Monday. It's believed the violence stemmed from a "turf war between an East New York crew and a Fort Greene crew."

Armani Hankins, 16, was shot in the head and pronounced dead at Brooklyn Hospital, while the other victim survived (he was shot in the ankle). According to witnesses who spoke to NBC 4 New York, "a group of teens had gotten into a fight down the block outside McDonald's, and the chaos drifted toward Applebee's, where roughly 10 gunshots were fired. Cellphone [video] shows a large group of young people stampeding down the sidewalk, then suddenly turning back and running in the other direction, presumably when the gunshots were fired. One of the teens limps on one foot as he runs back."

The NY Times noted that this "fast-gentrifying" area of Brooklyn is very attractive to teens:

The location of the shooting, opposite a Long Island University building and diagonal from Junior’s Restaurant, brims with young men and women in the afternoon. “This whole walk from the McDonald’s forward is chock-full of kids; it’s a mob scene,” said Tyre Washington, 52, a supervisor at Applebee’s, gesturing toward a pizza shop advertising $1 slices...
Witnesses said the confrontation began around the nearby McDonald’s. Jay Brewer, 19, a friend of Armani’s, said that at the time of the shooting, he was talking to officers and explaining that friends had been clowning around earlier.
“I heard a shot,” he said. “It was just unexpected. There was one shot and then pop-pop-pop-pop. There was a total of five or six shots.” Mr. Brewer said he spoke to Armani just moments before. They discussed what he said had been a play fight that preceded the violence.
“I’m a big homie. I’m going to beat all of you up,” Armani had said, according to Mr. Brewer.

Malik Peters, 17, of Brooklyn, has been charged with second-degree murder, second-degree attempted murder and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon.