CLINTON HILL — Police sources deny claims made in a lawsuit that a teenage boy sought help in the 88th Precinct stationhouse before being shot to death.
The mother of Laquan Nelson, 16, filed the suit in Brooklyn Supreme Court on Jan. 26 against the NYPD for "failure to protect" her son on June 2, 2014.
According to the suit, police "made Laquan leave the safety of the 88th Precinct knowing that he was in danger of injury and/or death from others."
The suit also claims that Nelson asked for help from police outside the building and was denied.
"Nelson was running away from a fight on a nearby basketball court in June 2014 when he first asked some cops in a marked patrol car for help — but they told him to go across the street so he’d be in the 79th Precinct and not their problem," Doug Herbert, a lawyer for Nelson's mother, Shirley Nelson, told the New York Post.
The 88th precinct stationhouse, at 298 Classon Ave., is located on the border between the 88th and 79th Precincts and directly across the Lafayette Gardens public houses.
Nelson was shot near the handball courts at Classon Playground adjacent to the station, police said.
But police deny that Nelson entered the building and said there was no surveillance footage of the incident.
Police sources say officers broke up a fight across the street from the precinct house at about 5 p.m. and a short while later Nelson staggered toward the station house with a gunshot wound to his torso.
Police called an ambulance just minutes after he collapsed by a tree near the precinct and was taken to Brooklyn Hospital 12 minutes later, where he was pronounced dead, according to the sources.
An investigation of the killing is still open and a suspect has not been arrested, police said.
Based on witness testimonies, there was no evidence that Nelson entered the stationhouse before he was shot or that he was the target of the shooting, police sources said.
Police sources said that the 88th Precinct's commanding officer, Peter Fiorillo, was on the scene and called for "additional resources to search for the shooter."
But Fiorillo said he was not aware of the situation until the report in the Post.
"As far as the claims go, it never got to my level."
The NYPD would not comment directly on the lawsuit.
"Due to pending litigation we will refrain from commenting on the specifics of the incident," they said.
Nelson's mother and Herbert could not be reached for comment.
