A 12-year-old boy was charged with manslaughter Monday in the tragic death of his 14-year-old cousin in Brooklyn – after heartbreakingly telling cops, “I shot my cousin by accident, I don’t want him to die,” authorities and sources said Monday.
The preteen, who was not publicly identified because he is a minor, was also charged with criminally negligent homicide and criminal possession of a weapon for the shooting that killed young Jasai Guy in a Brownsville housing project Sunday morning, cops said.
“I shot my cousin by accident,” the younger boy told officers responding to the 911 call at the Howard Houses, law-enforcement sources said. “I don’t want him to die.”
The cousins were being watched by their grandparents inside the fifth-floor unit on Osborn Street, law-enforcement sources said.
Sources told AMNY that the boys were playing together as their grandfather slept in the next room when the shots rang outat around 10:30 a.m.
Police found a shotgun, which investigators believe belongs to Jasai’s father, an FDNY firefighter who was away on vacation at the time of the tragedy, sources told The Post.
Jasai, who was shot in the chest, was rushed to Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center, but could not be saved.
The shooting appears to be accidental, sources said. Police were investigating how the children got the weapon, and whether it was obtained legally.
No one who lives in the apartment has a permit for the shotgun, which was stored in what appeared to be the father’s bedroom, according to sources.
Jasai’s cousin was released to his mother after he appeared in Brooklyn Family Court on Monday, according to a spokesperson with the city’s Law Department. The alleged shooter is scheduled to return to court Friday.
Neighbors described Jasai, who lived in the apartment with his dad and grandparents, as a popular teen who liked playing basketball and stayed out of trouble.
“He’d play (basketball) out here all the time,” said Mudhil Jeter, 40, who noted he had known Jasai “since he was a baby” and described him as smart and a “good kid.”
Jeter said he’d never seen Jasai’s younger cousin before and believed the preteen was “just visiting for the weekend.”
“It’s a tragedy. I knew his father well,” Jeter said. “His dad is cool, he was a party promoter then got a career as a firefighter.”
Jasai went to school and wasn’t involved in a gang, Jeter said.
“I don’t know what happened inside that apartment but they should have had that gun locked away,” he said.
“Don’t you learn in school not to play with guns? Don’t you have more sense at 12 years old? Curiosity, I guess,” he ventured.
“Everybody’s talking about it. It was a great tragedy,” the neighbor added. “He was a good kid, which is why it’s so shocking.”
Another neighbor, Wilson Sanchez, 67, described Jasai as a “beautiful, nice, educated kid.”
“It’s sad because it’s a little kid, it’s a young boy, you know? Starting to live…he was a nice kid, always playing basketball,” added Sanchez, who lives on the same floor as Jasai’s family.
And a 32-year-old woman who lives two floors above Jasai said her son was “shocked” and “speechless” over the fatal shooting.
“It’s sad. I’m a mom myself. My son’s his age. It’s really sad…he’s a good kid,” the woman, Jasmine, said of Jasai.
Jasmine also seemed conflicted about the charges faced by Jasai’s cousin.
“I hope everything is going to be alright with him because he’s going to be traumatized the rest of his life. They’re not losing one kid, they’re losing two kids,” she said.
