A heartbroken mom, whose teen son was killed the same day he’d just gotten a job, broke down on the witness stand in Queens court on Monday.
“I saw him that morning before school. I told him to be careful because a girl got killed the night before,” victim Tyrece Johnson’s mother, Sharon, told jurors at the trial of her son’s alleged killer, Jeffrey Ghee.
Johnson — whose family says was killed in a case of mistaken identity — rushed home from school later that day, May 19, 2008 to tell his mother that he was hired for a summer youth job, she said.
“He came home that day happy because he got the job, he was doing the right thing,” she said of her 16-year-old son.
Tyrece, who had dreams of playing professional baskebetball, left their home after sharing the good news to meet a friend, when his cautious mother called his cell phone alerting him to again “be careful.”
Johnson’s parents recently sent Tyrece to live in North Carolina with another relative for a year to get away from the brash of violence in Far Rockaway.
Less than two minutes after Sharon got off the phone with Tyrese, one of his friends told her he was shot on Mott Avenue.
Johnson’s family believes Tyrece was killed because he resembled his cousin George, who may have been the intended target.
“I said, ‘No!’ because I just got off the phone with him. I couldn’t believe it,” the mom said as tears rolled down her cheeks.
Sharon said she ran to the crowded scene and dropped to her knees in anguish.
“The wind blew the sheet, and my son was on the ground, I couldn’t believe it,” she said.
If convicted Ghee, 26, faces 25 years to life in prison for murder and criminal possession of a weapon charges.