Detectives now believe that the bright Bronx teen gunned down in a park last week may have been hit by a stray bullet while running into a gazebo to escape a thunderstorm, police said today.
Kemar Bryan Brooks, 14, was discovered dead by his father early Friday after the teen was shot in the back of his head in a Baychester park, cops said. It had been unclear what the boy was exactly doing when he was hit.
But NYPD spokesman Paul Browne today said Brooks, an avid tennis player, may have gone into a gazebo near the courts for shelter during the intense storm Thursday night.
A witness has told cops that Brooks and another tennis player in his 20s or 30s, as well as a third man, appeared to run into the structure to avoid the rain. The eyewitness also said she had seen a shooter enter the west side of Haffen Park and fire toward the pool, which is in the same direction as the gazebo, Browne said.
Brooks’ devastated father found the body of his honor-student son in a path near the courts and gazebo, next to the boy’s tennis racket.
Browne also corrected the time that cops believe Brooks was killed.
Detectives had thought the teen was shot during gunplay around midnight, but an autopsy shows he was more likely hit during an 8 p.m. shooting closer by.
No arrests have been made in the shooting.