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Teenager Shot to Death in Central Harlem

By Jess Wisloski | July 15, 2012 12:14pm | Updated on July 15, 2012 12:24pm
The crime scene at 135th St. and Lenox Ave where teenager Kenneth Archbolb was gunned down on July 14th, 2012.
The crime scene at 135th St. and Lenox Ave where teenager Kenneth Archbolb was gunned down on July 14th, 2012.
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DNAinfo/Paul Lomax

CENTRAL HARLEM — A teenager was shot to death early Sunday after a fight that started in a nearby fast-food restaurant spilled out onto the street, police and witnesses said.

Police responded to a 911 call of an unconscious man found at the corner of Lenox Avenue and West 135th Street at 1:57 a.m., police said. 

There they found the body of Kenneth Archbolb, 19, who lived in Morrisania, the Bronx, unresponsive and suffering from gunshot wounds in his torso, police said. He was directly across the street from Harlem Hospital, according to police, and was rushed to the emergency room but declared dead upon arrival. 

Witnesses at the scene said it may have started at the all-night McDonald's on Lenox Avenue between West 132nd and 133rd streets.

A woman working at the register, when asked if the fight had started there, said "No comment," and said no manager was available to speak to a reporter.

A witness who did not want his name used he heard the noise erupting from his apartment above the intersection. 

"I heard the fight break out in the middle of the traffic island," said the man, who lives at 485 Lenox Ave. "Then it escalated, and I heard three loud shots. The fight got to a point of no return," he said. "I came down and the kid was laid out dead."

Police sources said it started as a fight among teenagers, and spilled out across the intersection, before Archbolb took off, and was shot on the northwest corner of West 135th Street, near a 2, 3 subway entrance.

Earl Brown, a postal worker and the uncle of Archbolb, said he was mystified. The young man had grown up in the area, he said, and still visited the neighborhood to hang out with his friends and sleep over at Brown's apartment.

"He was a good kid," said Brown. "I'm not sure what happened. I'm still trying to find out." 

Tony, who said he was a friend of Archbolb, but didn't want his last name used, added, "He was a calm, cool, good kid. He was about to have a baby."

Police said an investigation was ongoing.