South Bronx

Residents, Pols Rally After 4-Year-Old Boy Killed by Stray Bullet

By Chelsia Rose Marcius and Alan Neuhauser on July 24, 2012 8:39am

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THE BRONX — The killing of a 4-year-old boy who was shot on a Bronx playground brought dozens of angry Morrisania residents to a rally Monday night.

Lloyd Morgan, who was visiting the Forest Houses with his parents to watch a memorial basketball tournament Sunday, was playing on a nearby jungle gym when he was hit in the head by a stray bullet after a gunfight erupted on the court about 9:40 p.m.

"Why was that 4-year-old boy here? Because he loved basketball," City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said at Monday night's event.

"He had a sport he liked. He had parents who took time from their weekend so he could do what he liked. "And the most wonderful of family nights ended in horrible, unthinkable tragedy."

Quinn was joined by State Senator Ruben Diaz (D-Bronx) and Assemblyman Eric Stevenson (D-Bronx), who called on the community to help police find the shooters.

"This isn't a thing about snitching," Stevenson said. "This is a thing about saving the young of this community."

Stevenson and Diaz added that the shooting prompted them to throw their support behind the NYPD's controversial stop-and-frisk tactics, which critics argue disproportionately target blacks and Latinos.

"I am fully supportive of stop-and-frisk starting today," Diaz declared. "Our community has to be protected. Let's stop somebody from being killed."

The shooting "changed my mind" about stop-and-frisk, said Stevenson, who is black.

Quinn, meanwhile, said the tactic required "reforms."

"I want to leave it as a tool in the toolbox of police officers," Quinn said. "That said, I've said it needs to be reformed."

She didn't provide details about what type of reforms would be needed.

Lloyd was the second child to be shot on a playground in two weeks. Isaiah Rivera, 3, was shot in the legs July 8 while playing in a sprinkler at the Roosevelt Houses in Bedford-Stuyvesant, which also prompted an outcry from the city's civic leaders.

Morgan's parents said they called him "Little LeBron" and "President Obama.

Shianne Norman

In Sunday's shooting, two other men were shot. Jason Courtney Kelly, 27, and Christopher Forte, 21, were wounded.

Kelly was reportedly related to a woman who was being memorialized by the basketball tournament, according to the New York Daily News. The event was held in memory of Troynisha Harris, 18, who was stabbed to death on East 166th Street on July 24, 2010.

Kelly, who was shot in the stomach, was in custody and in stable condition at Lincoln Hospital Monday night, police at the scene said. An alleged Bloods member, Kelly has prior arrests for robbery, criminal possession of a controlled substance and assault, a police source said.

It is unknown if he was suspected of taking part in Sunday's shooting.

The NYPD said early Tuesday that no one had been charged.

Forte, 21, was shot in the arm, police said. He was treated and released from St. Barnabas Hospital. He had been arrested once before, but that charge is sealed because he was a minor.

Reporter/Producer Alexander Hotz contributed to this story.