Law enforcement officials are still seeking clues to last month’s killing of Juwan “Chico” Tavarez, 16, in East Harlem’s Jefferson Houses. The shooting has been ruled a homicide, yet no suspects have been named or arrested as the investigation continues.
Tavarez was crossing Third Avenue between 114th and 115th Streets at approximately 4:45 p.m. Good Friday, March 25th, when the all-too-familiar sound of gunfire erupted.
“I just heard about five, six shots, and they went back-to-back,” recalled a local girl who said she was upstairs at home when the fracas occurred. She then looked out her window and saw Tavarez sprawled in the street “and then I looked over and it was a couple of boys running.”
Several witnesses said they also saw a group of teens fleeing the scene.
“It didn’t look like he was moving at first but then his body started moving up and down. He was there, lying in a trail of blood with the woman over him,” said Deyra Acosta, 16, who was visiting her father in Jefferson Houses.
Family and friends said the violence was random, and the youth just happened to be “at the wrong place at the wrong time.”
However, police are investigating whether the shooting was gang related or stemmed from a rivalry between Jefferson and the nearby Wagner Houses.
Tavarez was taken to Harlem Hospital in critical condition and placed in a “sedated coma” as loved ones gathered.
“We don’t want to pull the plug,” said his concerned dad, Marco Wan. “My daughter’s up there and she said, ‘He squeezed my hand.’”
Tavarez remained on life support over the weekend but eventually succumbed to his injuries that Sunday night.
Tavarez’s sister-in-law, who refused to reveal her name, said, “I got a phone call and I just ran down the block and they just told me that Chico was shot in the head. He underwent surgery on his brain Friday evening.”
The NYPD placed posters throughout East Harlem asking for information about the incident.
“I wouldn’t wish this pain on anyone,” said Joanne, one of Tavarez’s sisters, who declined to give her last name. “This is the worst kind of tragedy. That was my mother’s baby.”
Last Saturday evening, April 2nd, several dozen people in East Harlem protested against gun violence in their communities during the “Walk for Peace” rally as they marched through the local public housing projects historically besieged by violence—Wagner Houses, Jefferson Houses and Johnson Houses.
“It’s senseless violence, there’s no reason for it, and we’re just trying to say instead of retaliation let the people come together and say no more deaths, no more murders. You know, support each other, respect each other,” urged one demonstrator.
“What I hope changes is that we all could come together, and we could put down the guns. You know, we have various young people out here being killed. Right now as you know, there’s a war going on basically,” noted another.
“Chico was a good kid,” remembered a saddened Keron Dantzler, 15. “He looked out for his people and he kept us all smiling.”
“He didn’t deserve any of this,” added Kolbe Arroyo, 16, Tavarez’s building neighbor from Wagner Houses. “He was a clown—just so funny and always making people laugh. You couldn’t be mad around Chico.”
Dakotah Campbell, 13, reflected on the local conflicts.
“He’s not a bad person; people need to know that,” he said. “You’re just born into this. Either you’re Jefferson or Wagner and that’s it—you’re on one side of the beef for life. I don’t know how it’s going to end, but it has to. They just keep going back and forth, and no one even knows how it began.”
Benjamin Sierra, 17, also from Wagner Houses, indicated, “He’s only 16 years old. He’s a good kid.”
Wan remained optimistic: “Somebody knows who did it. The person who did this, they will be found.”
Tavarez’s sister, who didn’t give her name, added, “He’s a young kid. This is too much.”
People with info about the case are asked to contact the Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS, or text CRIMES and then enter TIP577, or visit www.nypdcrimestoppers.com.
