The 13-year-old boy who died two days after being shot in the head on his way to school is a self-proclaimed gang member murdered by a rival older teen, police said Thursday.
Cops released surveillance images of a 16-year-old suspect Thursday in the slaying of Sanjay Samuel and asked the public’s help finding him. They are also working with an attorney to broker his surrender, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said.
The motive for the killing of Sanjay “is going to be gang,” Kenny said.
“Based just off of (Sanjay’s) social media posts, he has some affiliation or association with SSM, which he posts about quite frequently,” Kenny said of the victim.
SSM is a Bloods set known as “Sex, Money, Murder,” Kenny said.
Despite having been pronounced dead Wednesday, the victim remained on a ventilator at the hospital Thursday so his organs can be harvested and donated, Kenny said.
Sanjay has never been arrested and is not in the NYPD’s gang database, Kenny said.
“(The gang connection) is based just off his own social media posts, where he refers to himself as Jay Twogunzz,” Kenny said.
The suspect cops are looking for, who is also affiliated with the Bloods, was caught on surveillance video shooting Sanjay during a fistfight and was also recorded on the dash camera of a good Samaritan who chased after him, Kenny said.
“(The shooter is) running on Nashville Blvd. and runs past the good Samaritan, who tries to grab him,” Kenny said. “The good Samaritan then tries to follow him in his car and he pulls along the shooter and asks him to surrender. He says ‘No.’”
“The perpetrator asks (the good Samaritan) for a ride and he says ‘No,’ but he asks the teen ‘Can I have your sweatshirt?’ and the perpetrator gives the good Samaritan his sweatshirt,” Kenny continued.
The sweatshirt, which the good Samaritan handed to cops, helped investigators identify the suspect, whose nickname is Flex. The Daily News is not releasing the suspect’s name because of his age.
“The Regional Fugitive Task Force is hunting him and we are hoping to apprehend him shortly,” Kenny said.
Sanjay was with classmates from Martin Van Buren outside the Dunkin Donuts on Springfield and Linden Blvds. in Cambria Heights about 8:20 a.m. on Monday when the killer approached them on a Razor scooter, police said. The suspect attends the Campus Magnet High School nearby the scene, police say.
“Flex is a known trouble maker in the area,” Kenny said. “(Sanjay and his friends) appear to be aware of the kid and have had interactions with him in the past.”
The victim and his friends immediately begin arguing with the rival teen, according to video recovered by police. At least one teen is screaming “Flex is gonna die,” Kenny said.
The killer is caught on surveillance camera pulling a gun on the group, sending them scattering. He rolls away on his scooter but comes back a few minutes later and begins fighting with Sanjay, who was still outside the donut shop.
“There’s a physical fight with the victim throwing punches and a shot is fired,” Kenny said.
Medics rushed Sanjay to Cohen Children’s Medical Center with a bullet lodged in his brain. He was in a coma for two days before he succumbed to his injuries.
Sanjay’s father, Theophilus Samuel, and other family members were in the hospital room with Sanjay when he was pronounced dead about 12:25 p.m. Wednesday.
“I was devastated,” the father told The News. “I couldn’t believe it. Like, why my son? It’s very hard and difficult.”
“You don’t think right and I just have no words,” he added.
Police said the suspect was wearing a black hoodie, black pants, white sneakers and a backpack with with a shark teeth on it.
“He’s a coward,” Theophilus Samuel said Tuesday of the shooter. “How can you live with this? At the moment, you’re probably hyped. But as time goes by, you have to think about this. ‘I took another persons life’.”
The brazen shooting occurred on a street renamed to honor Kevin Miller Jr. — a 13-year-old boy killed in 2009 by a stray bullet fired by a suspected gang member at the same corner. On Monday, Kevin’s mother, Donna Hood-Greaves, told the Daily News she “lost it” when she learned another boy, the same age as her son, had been shot at the same location. Both boys were shot in the head.
“When I saw it on the news, I took a moment to bow my head and pray for that family,” Hood-Greaves said of Sanjay’s family. “It never gets easier. It’s something you never get over.”
Anyone with information on the suspect in Sanjay’s shooting is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.
