The 13-year-old boy gunned down outside a Queens Dunkin’ Donuts this week was likely slain over a gang beef, police said Thursday — as they identified a fellow teenager as the suspected killer.
Cops believe the still-at-large suspect — 16-year-old Martin Van Buren High School student Jaysohn Sykes — allegedly rolled up on a Razor scooter and shot young Sanjay Samuel in the head outside the coffee shop at around 8:20 a.m. on Monday, leaving him brain dead, an NYPD official said.
Samuel appeared to be affiliated with the SSM, or Sex Money Murder gang, a subset of the Bloods, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said.
But the slain teen – who identified himself as “J2 Guns” on Instagram – was not listed in the NYPD’s “criminal group database” and had no previous criminal history, the police official said.
“He posts quite frequently – SSM with a drop of blood,” Kenny told reporters.
Investigators believe Sykes — who goes by the name “Flex” — shot Samuel during a group brawl, Kenny said.
“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.”
A good Samaritan spotted Sykes fleeing and tried to stop him — pleading with the teen to surrender and hand over his gun — but he refused, according to Kenny.
Instead, Sykes brazenly asked the do-gooder for a ride, the chief said.
“Obviously, the civilian says no, but says, ‘Can I have your sweatshirt?’” Kenny said. “And for some reason the perp gives him his sweatshirt. So it’s a very identifiable sweatshirt. It’s clearly the one that’s on the scene that he was wearing during the shooting.”
The NYPD has “probable cause” to arrest Sykes, and investigators with the Regional Fugitive Task Force were “contacted by an attorney, hopefully, possibly to arrange his surrender,” the chief said.
“What we’re getting from our victim’s friends is that Flex is a known troublemaker in the area,” Kenny said. “And we have on video from the Dunkin Donuts – a male as the interaction is going on, where they’re taunting each other, he’s saying, ‘Flex is gonna die. Flex is gonna die.’”
Sykes has several social media postings showing a blood drop, “but he does not specifically mention any gang in his social media, Kenny said.
As the NYPD hunts for the suspect, Samuel’s family is only keeping the teen’s body hooked up to a ventilator in hopes of donating his organs, Kenny said.
