The stepfather of a Brooklyn teen left brain-dead after he was shot in the head said yesterday that the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk policy could have saved his son.
“I believe that if someone looks suspicious out in the streets, you’ve got to stop him and frisk him,” said the heartbroken stepdad of Akeal Cristopher, 14, who was clinging to life at Brookdale Hospital yesterday.
The city’s policy has come under heavy criticism from civil-rights groups that say it unfairly targets minorities. But the stepfather, who did not give his name, said the move is a “good idea.”
“I’m from the streets, you know? I know how it is out there,” he said. “Stop-and-frisk could have helped prevent what happened to my stepson.”
Christopher, a 10th-grader at Transit Tech HS in East New York, had just left a friend’s graduation party in Bushwick at about 11 p.m. Wednesday when his posse of seven friends was confronted by a group of six young men on the corner of Jefferson Street and Evergreen Avenue.
“Are you a part of the Lute Crew?” one of them asked Christopher’s group, according to police Commissioner Ray Kelly.
“We’re not certain what the answer was, but two shots ring out and he is struck in the face,” Kelly said yesterday.
EMS rushed Christopher to the hospital in very critical condition. The bullet tore apart his brain and he was in intensive care late yesterday afternoon, a family member said.
“He’s in God’s hands,” the family member added. “Pray for us.”
Additional reporting by Larry Celona