The younger brother of a man shot celebrating his birthday in the Bronx witnessed the slaying and was wounded by the gunman too, the siblings’ heartbroken mother revealed Monday.
Keon Gill and his 25-year-old brother had just left a nightclub near W. 242nd St. and Broadway in Riverdale when they were shot just before 3 a.m. Sunday, cops said.
“One is dead. One could have been dead,” said mother, Brenda Gill, 68. “It was really not right.”
Keon turned 44 the day he was killed and was celebrating his birthday in the Bronx, where he used to live, with friends and his brother, his mother said. He currently lived in Middletown, N.Y., in Orange County, about 70 miles north of the city.
Brenda last spoke to Keon Friday.
“He says, ‘Ma, I’ll see you later. You gonna cook for me on Sunday?’” she recalled. “I said. ‘Yeah, that’s your birthday.’ So he said, ‘I love you, Ma. Talk to you later.’”
“I never got a chance to say happy birthday, get the cake,” she added.
A fight broke out between the killer and the brothers before shots rang out, police said. Gill, who was shot in the chest, died a short time later at St. Barnabas Hospital. His brother, who was shot in the leg and grazed in the head, survived after being rushed to the same hospital.
The brothers had stopped at a store outside the club and were walking to their car parked near Van Cortlandt Park for the return trip home when they were confronted by the gunman, their mother said.
“The bullet went through his heart and hit the lung and he died,” the mother said of Keon. “It was three bullets. One went through my younger son’s ear and grazed at the top of the head. It’s crazy.”
After being shot, “Keon ran but he took his coat off and he said, ‘Call Mommy, I can’t breathe.’” his mother said. “He fell down. The ambulance came.”
Keon’s wounded brother is now at home recovering.
There have been no arrests. The motive for the shooting remains a mystery.
“He went to a party,” Keon’s mother said. “I’m thinking (the killer’s) trying to rob these boys because they have on nice stuff. You just don’t run around killing people. It’s really not fair to the families … It’s not acceptable.”
Keon was a father of four, two sons and two daughters, who are heartbroken by their father’s death.
“Now I have to bury him,” his mother said. “His kids are asking me, ‘Grandma, why? Grandma please, wake him up.’ I can’t wake him up. I wish I could wake him up. I can’t wake him up.”
Keon was a talented athlete who traveled across the country playing basketball in high school, his ex-wife, who is the mother of his three oldest kids, told the Daily News.
“You have to be good,” the ex-wife, Mahogany Gill, 44, said of his high school career. “You have to definitely be good.”
The victim continued playing ball into adulthood with the YMCA of Middletown men’s league, which honored him after his death with a memorial jersey his team will play with in the coming season.
“Every time we step on the court, every time we compete, every time we come together at the park or the gyms — we carry you with us,” the YMCA men’s league posted on Instagram. “Your initials are on our hearts and now on our jerseys, forever.”
Keon shared his loved of the game with his oldest son, also named Keon, who played basketball for Middletown High School before going on to play college ball at Jarvis Christian College in Texas.
“His son followed him,” said Mahogany. “He has three kids in college.”
The victim dedicated his life to his children, giving up his own college ambitions to raise his kids, his ex-wife said.
“He was going to college and we ended up having kids, so he put them first. … Having kids young, you give up those dreams and opportunities to raise a family,” said Mahogany. “That’s what we did. One thing he wanted to instill in his kids, he wanted them to be better than him and he wanted them to get an education and go to college.”
“They’re so hurt,” she added. “My kids are just devastated. He was a role model to his kids. His kids looked up to him and he looked up to his kids. His kids meant everything to him in this world.”
