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14-Year-Old Shot to Death on Way to School, Police and Witnesses Say

 Christopher Duran, 14, was shot in the head and torso in the Bronx on Friday, police said.
Bronx Shooting
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CONCOURSE — A 14-year-old gang member on his way to school was shot to death in The Bronx on Friday morning, police and sources said.

Christopher Duran was shot three times — twice in the torso and once in the head — at 1174 Sheridan Ave. at about 8:30 a.m., a spokesman for the NYPD said.

Duran was arguing with two other people on the street when one of them took out a gun and shot him, sources said. The suspects fled south on Sheridan Avenue afterwards, police said.

Family members said Duran, an aspiring boxer, was walking out of his building with his younger brother on his way to school when he was shot.

 

"He was a normal kid, he liked to hang out with friends," his cousin, Stephanie Guzman, 25, said, adding the family was "destroyed" when they heard the news.

"There’s no words for how we feel."

Kiara Castillo, 24, who lives in the same building as Duran, said her mother came into her room crying when she heard the gunshots.

“These streets are getting worse and worse and worse,” Castillo said. “He should have been in school."

Duran has been arrested five times for numerous charges including for possession of a knife, graffiti and misdemeanor assault, sources said.

While police suspect Duran was a gang member, his former teacher at P.S. 443X, Justin Dayhoff, said Duran was more of a peacekeeper in school.

"He was the kid that would say when others were horsing around, ‘Cut it out. This is a fun class and I want to be here,'" said Dayhoff, who taught Duran music for three years. "He was very soft-spoken, but people respected him. He was a leader, he was respected by his friends and well-liked by his faculty."

Police recovered two videos of the shooting, including one NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce described as "pretty gruesome."

A suspect wearing a light colored hooded sweatshirt with dark sleeves, blue jeans and a red bandana on his face was caught on video walking away.

"He's trying to disguise what he looks like," Boyce said.

Murders and shootings have increased citywide this year, while gun arrests have decreased, according to NYPD crime statistics. 

Shootings have increased 8.7 percent and murders increased 12.7 percent compared to this time last year.

Sources said a suspect was taken into custody shortly after the shooting.