The Bronx teen killed in a broad-daylight shooting Thursday got wrapped up in a senseless social media spat between his girlfriend and another female that escalated to deadly violence, the young victim’s family said Friday.
Laquai Dash, 17, a young football player who was looking forward to traveling to Spain on a senior class trip, was shot three times during the 4:15 p.m. violence, which erupted about a block from Legacy College High School, which he attended, according to cops and his family.
Shocking video obtained by The Post shows the moment Dash runs across Cauldwell Avenue in Melrose as his shooter aims — but he collapses on the opposite sidewalk, unable to avoid the three bullets that struck his neck and back.
“They don’t be beefing over nothing important, I’m telling you that now,” the slain boy’s aunt, Lucy White, told The Post. “Everybody talking s–t on social media, then come out and start shooting. You wanna fight, fight with your hands! You get beat up, you get beat up, come back another day. Now these kids want to use every weapon in the book.”
The bloodshed began after an online squabble, during which the other girl showed up at the high school to fight Laquai’s gal pal, according to Laquai’s grandmother, Vivian Coward, 62.
She also allegedly brought her own boyfriend along for protection, Coward said.
“Laquai’s girlfriend and another little girl got into a fight,” Coward said. “Laquai’s girlfriend was beating up the other little girl. That girl’s boyfriend went and put Laquai’s girlfriend in a chokehold. Laquai then put him in a chokehold to get him off his girlfriend, so he turned around and shot Laquai in the neck.”
Laquai was taken to Lincoln Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. The killer is still at large and unidentified.
“This was all over social media,” Coward said. “Laquai died over nothing. It was senseless. Wholly senseless.”
Neither the shooter nor his girlfriend attended the same high school with Laquai, who had been dating his own gal pal since the start of the academic year, according to his family.
Laquai was a “decent kid” and a “good grandson” who also enjoyed spending time with his friends — and would leave home early in the morning to wake up his pals and encourage them to go to school with him, his grandmother said.
He planned to visit Spain with his classmates at the end of the month, and was hoping to land a career in the hospitality industry, according to his grandma.
“He wanted to work in hotels,” Coward said. “His friend’s father works in hotels and he likes what his friend’s father does.”
“He loved his family. Every day he would go to his cousins’ house,” Laquai’s grandmother recalled. “It hasn’t sunk in. But it has sunk in to his little sister.”
Laquai’s sister, Nia’sky Dash, 12, said she found out her brother was shot when she returned home from Legacy College Middle School.
“My brother was really kind. He was always there for me,” Nia’sky said. “He meant the world to me. I knew I always had him. Even when the world was against me, he had me.”
“Even though he isn’t here, I know he is looking over me, making sure that I’m safe and OK,” the pre-teen added. “I just loved him.”
No arrests had been made by Friday afternoon in connection to Laquai’s murder, police said.
Natalie Chavez, 35, whose kids attend P.S.157, said she and other parents had been urging cops to increase patrols since Legacy College Prep High School opened around three years ago.
An increased police presence is needed because the older kids are constantly fighting and smoking pot in the adjoining Grove Hill Playground, Chavez said.
“I begged the police, ‘Let’s not wait until one of these kids gets killed,’ and look what’s happened,” she said. “The police let a 17-year-old die instead of standing out here. Come on, that’s a baby that died.”
The block and playground have become lawless, and cars belonging to parents and teachers have been repeatedly vandalized outside the elementary school, Chavez said.
“They’re breaking the windows for fun, just to vandalize, they don’t take anything,” Chavez said. “There’s a lot of fights going on.”
“You see the students in Legacy uniforms smoking weed in the playground,” the concerned mom added. “That school is horrible. Now you have to be scared that they’re carrying. How many kids need to die?”
The fatal shooting came just a week after 13-year-old Troy Gill was shot dead by a rival gang in Crown Heights, police sources told The Post.
