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Man Arrested for Deadly Polo Grounds Shooting, Police say

By  Nicholas Rizzi and Trevor Kapp | July 9, 2015 7:53am 

 Demetrius Washington, 19, was arrested and charged for the death of Jordan Barber, 18, who was shot in the neck while trying to break up a fight outside the Polo Grounds, police and witnesses said.
Demetrius Washington, 19, was arrested and charged for the death of Jordan Barber, 18, who was shot in the neck while trying to break up a fight outside the Polo Grounds, police and witnesses said.
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DNAinfo/Trevor Kapp

HARLEM — Police have arrested a 19-year-old suspected of gunning down a teen who was trying to break up a fight at the Polo Grounds last month.

Demetrius Washington of The Bronx, was arrested on Wednesday and charged with murder for the June 29 shooting of Jordan Barber, 18, police said.

Barber, an aspiring chef, had attended a Rucker Park basketball tournament and was standing outside the Polo Grounds Houses at 2391 Frederick Douglas Blvd. with two friends when a group of 30 people approached, police said.

Washington, 19, fired shots into the crowd, hitting Barber in the neck and wounding two other teens, police said.

Barber told his mother “I love you” in his final moments after he was shot, she said.

“He was on the ground. Blood was coming out of his mouth,” Barber’s mom, Lashanda Holman, 34, said. “I was telling him to hang on. I knew my baby was dead.”

Washington's mother, who did not want to give her name, denied he was the gunman.

"He's a beautiful kid," his mother, 42, said, adding that he is a star basketball player Edward A. Reynolds West Side High School and "He said he didn't do it. I know he didn't do it."

She said he went to Rucker Park for the tournament with some friends but he told her he wasn't the one to pull the trigger.

"It's hurtful and unfortunate because she lost a son as well," Washington's mother said. "There are two families going through something tragic. It's hurtful. No mother wants to lose her son."

Washington was charged with murder, assault, criminal possession of a weapon and reckless endangerment by police.

He's been arrested five other times and has been charged with assault, criminal possession of a weapon and possession of pot, police said.

Barber’s wake will be held at Benta’s Funeral Home on West 141st Street from 3 to 6 p.m. on July 10, with the funeral to follow, his mother told DNAinfo New York.