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19-Year-Old Man Gunned Down in Chelsea

By  Alan Neuhauser and Chelsia Rose Marcius | July 9, 2012 7:14am | Updated on July 9, 2012 10:44am

Dante Sanders, 19, was shot and killed outside the Chelsea Houses early Monday morning, July 9, 2012, the NYPD said.
Dante Sanders, 19, was shot and killed outside the Chelsea Houses early Monday morning, July 9, 2012, the NYPD said.
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DNAinfo/Chelsia Rose Marcius

CHELSEA — A 19-year-old man was shot and killed on West 25th Street early Monday morning, just blocks away from his home, the NYPD reported.



Dante Sanders was shot multiple times in the torso outside the Chelsea Houses at 415 W. 25th St. shortly after 2 a.m., police said.

"I heard four shots, then a woman scream, 'Oh, my God, they shot him,'" said a woman who identified herself as a resident, but declined to give her name. "I looked out of my window and saw people running out of the building from 26th Street."

Sanders, of the John Lovejoy Elliot Houses at 288 10th Ave., was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said.

Sanders was "sweet, kind-hearted," said Debo-Rah Gatling, 55, a Harlem resident who said she became a maternal figure for the teen.

Sanders was shot less than three blocks from his home in the John Lovejoy Elliot Houses on 10th Avenue.
Sanders was shot less than three blocks from his home in the John Lovejoy Elliot Houses on 10th Avenue.
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DNAinfo/Chelsia Rose Marcius

The two first met 11 years ago in a store they frequented, Gatling recalled, and it wasn't long before Sanders started considering her much more than a friend.

"He said, 'Miss Debo-Rah, can I call you Mom?'" Gatling said. "He's been calling me mom ever since."

Her eyes filled with tears as she described a favorite memory of Sanders. "I once made fish for him, and he said, 'Thank you, mom, I've been so tired of eating at restaurants; I needed that home-cooked meal," Gatling said.

No arrests have been made, and the investigation was ongoing.

Sanders' grandmother, far left, was comforted near the scene of the shooting.
Sanders' grandmother, far left, was comforted near the scene of the shooting.
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DNAinfo/Chelsia Rose Marcius