A 14-year-old boy "made statements admitting his participation" in the fatal shooting of a man on a B15 bus Thursday evening. But Kahton Anderson's mother insisted to the Daily News, "My son did not get on some bus and start shooting... Both families are suffering a loss."
When the bus got to Lafayette Boulevard and Marcus Garvey Boulevard, Kahton apparently was aiming for a rival when he fired. But he ended up hitting Angel Rojas, a father of two heading home in between his two jobs, in the back of the head.
The Post reports, "After the shooting Anderson tried to get back on the bus - but the driver stopped him by speeding off instead." The driver added, "It was a horrible noise. You hear the shots going off and then the ringing in your ears. People were trying to shield themselves. The passengers were screaming … One lady kept screaming and screaming - she was sitting behind the man who was shot."
Anderson is part of a Tompkins-Houses gang called the Stack Money Goons, while his rivals were from the Twan Family gang at the Marcy Houses. According to the Times:
Such gangs are typically associated with a particular housing project or neighborhood block, and are a major source of gun violence in the city, officials say. Their turf wars can be as combustive as they are petty, with a misplaced glance on the street or a slight on Facebook quickly escalating to bloodshed...
Both gangs emerged about a year and a half ago, and members of the crews have exchanged fire at least once in the last month, said Deputy Inspector Michael LiPetri, the commanding officer of the 79th Precinct in Brooklyn. Though no members of the two groups had been arrested on homicide charges, several members of both have been shot and at least one member of the Stack Money Goons has been arrested for a past shooting, he said.
Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said, "The stupidity of those gangs that basically, over nothing, are trying to kill each other. Unfortunately, in the process, (they) kill innocents as they did with this hardworking young man trying to raise his family."
The driver also recognized Rojas as a regular rider. The 39-year-old had finished a long shift at a fruit stand and was heading home to see his wife and children before going to work at a deli. His 12-year-old son Saury said that his mother cannot afford the rent on their Brownsville apartment on her part-time salary.
The Daily News, which is working with church and community groups to set up a fund for the family, reports, "Saury, who is nursing a broken thumb from playing basketball, said he worries about his mother because she has high blood pressure on top of heartbreak. He said he is clinging to happy memories of his slain father. 'We used to go to the park nearby and he used to push me on the swings really high,' he said."
