CROWN HEIGHTS — A teenager who worked two jobs and aspired to be a teacher had those dreams cut short Tuesday morning. He died from a gunshot wound in the torso, police said.
Darius Robinson, 17, was sent to Interfaith Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, police said.
His father Fred, 43, said Robinson was an aspiring teacher who held down two jobs in high school, working at a McDonald's and doing maintenance.
"He was a very mature 17-year-old," Fred Robinson said. "Speaking to him was like speaking to grown man."
This is the second time that gun violence had killed someone in Fred Robinson's family: He said his brother Seaton was shot to death in 1988 while attempting to run from a robbery.
Fred Robinson said he plans to reach out to community leaders to organize a march against violence.
The victim's brother-in-law, Jovan Thomas, also believed gun violence is increasingly plaguing the city.
"It seems like every day you wake up and hear about somebody being shot," said Thomas, 28.
Robinson, who lived at Brooklyn Avenue and Empire Boulevard, was shot while standing with a crowd outside 720 St. Marks Ave. between Nostrand and New York avenues just before 1:20 a.m., according to authorities.
The teen, who was apparently not the intended target, happened to be in the wrong place when shots rang out, NYPD said.
It was not immediately clear why the crowd had gathered.
Clement Chambers, 59, the superintendent for a building in the area, said he heard about five shots fired. The shooting woke up his entire family, he said.
“I saw when the paramedics were trying to save him, to wake him up,” Chambers said of the victim. “In no time they put him in the ambulance and moved [out].”
