'Bright and beautiful' 14 year old boy shot dead by cousin in his grandfather's home

The heartbroken mother of a 14-year-old teenager who was tragically shot in the chest by his younger cousin has expressed her wish for her son to be remembered for his 'bright and beautiful' personality, as she shed tears over the devastating incident. "My boy was so beautiful,'' said Tiffany Grant, mere days after her son's life was cut short when his 12-year-old cousin accidentally got hold of a firearm. The youngsters were spending time at their paternal grandfather's residence in Brownsville, Brooklyn .

They were playing while their grandad was asleep, when one of them discovered a gun, believed to belong to the victim's father. Jasai was fatally wounded in the heart by an illegal, sawed-off shotgun, according to the police report. Upon the arrival of the authorities, the 12-year-old tearfully confessed to the accidental shooting.

"I shot my cousin by accident, I don't want him to die," the distraught child told the officers. The 12-year-old, whose identity is being withheld due to his age, informed the authorities "that he was trying to take the gun away from his cousin and it went off," NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny revealed during a press briefing.

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Upon their arrival, the police found blood scattered throughout the apartment corridor. "There is a gun, a shotgun on the bed [inside]," Kenny stated. "There is blood on that bedroom wall and shotgun pellets embedded in the wall. The shotgun itself is altered.

"The barrel and stock were both shortened to reduce its size. It's a Mossberg model 518 12-gauge shotgun," the chief police officer stated. "We found one spent shell casing at the scene and five live rounds in the shotgun."

The injuries sustained by Jasai are described as "a gaping chest wound and a hole in the victim's heart," reports the Mirror US . Jasai's mother, Tiffany, shared with journalists that her son was incredibly creative, with a passion for drawing comic books and playing basketball. She fondly recalled how often he broke his glasses while playing the sport, eventually leading him to switch to contact lenses.

She revealed that her son's clothes are still laid out on his bed, waiting to be put away, and all his belongings are still there, waiting for him. "Saturday, he just got his contacts,'' the mother told the New York Post. "He was excited.

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"The pictures you see where he didn't have his glasses, he couldn't see. It's beside that, it's who he was. And I'm going to tell that story."

Jasai leaves behind a younger sister, who, according to their mother, is still struggling to come to terms with the loss of her older brother, turning herself into a 'helper' and providing comfort to those around her. The cousin and the father, who owned the gun, have lawyers and are not speaking about the case to the media.

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