A 16-year-old suspected of gunning down a 13-year-old Queens boy in a potentially gang-related burst of violence front of a Queens Dunkin’ Donuts this week surrendered to cops Friday — as the young victim’s mom blamed the deadly shooting on social media.
Jaysohn Sykes — a student at Campus Magnet High School — turned himself in around noon at the 105th Precinct stationhouse, a day after NYPD officials identified him as the suspect in the Monday morning slaying of 13-year-old Sanjay Samuel outside the Springfield Gardens coffee shop, according to the sources.
Investigators believe Sykes — who goes by the name Flex — shot Sanjay during a group brawl, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said Thursday.
“He walks up to the group and confronts them. They’re yelling back and forth. Suddenly, the group scatters,” Kenny described.
“We believe at this point, our perpetrator pulls out and displays a pistol, which causes the crowd to disperse a little bit,” he continued.
“The perpetrator gets back on the scooter to leave. The crowd starts yelling at him again. He comes back, at which point he gets into a physical fight with our victim,” Kenny said.
“They start throwing punches at each other, and then a shot is fired. He goes down. Our perpetrator flees the scene.”
Sanjay was known to post on social media about the SSM, or Sex Money Murder gang, a subset of the Bloods — leading investigators to suspect a gang motive, sources said.
However, the slain teen — who identified himself as “J2 Guns” on Instagram — was not listed in the NYPD’s criminal group database and had no criminal history, the police official said.
His family also firmly denied any gang involvement.
“Trust me, I don’t know anything about such activities, talking about gang activities,” his dad, Theophilus Samuel, said Thursday.
“He wasn’t involved in nothing,” Samuel said. “Every time when I called him when he should be home from school, he was home. I have a tracking device on my phone so I could track him.”
“I have no more words to say about the situation. For a parent to lose their kid in this way is very difficult.”
Meanwhile, his mother, Velene Griffith, pointed a finger at social media, on which she said her son would post things to “look grown.”
“This phone is a devil,” the grieving mom said. “These kids, they talk too much on social media. They live on the phone, on social media to hype themselves up, to look grown, to look big and bad.”
The boy’s uncle, Elvin Griffith, shared a similar sentiment.
“It’s possible he could be a kid trying to be important posting things that were not so,” Griffith said. “I think so.”
“He was never involved in the [criminal justice] system,” he added. “All that they have are posts and you cannot judge someone by their posts. Kids post things that are not true all the time on the internet.”
Sykes, meanwhile, has several social media postings showing a blood drop, but doesn’t specifically mention any gang, according to Kenny.
Sources say the US Marshals Service arranged for Sykes’ surrender.
Charges were not immediately filed.
