Queens DJ fatally shot after fight breaks out at Fourth of July house party

A 37-year-old Queens DJ looking forward to a “big night” was fatally shot early Thursday when a fight broke out at a Fourth of July party, police said.

Travanti Rankine was shot in the chest during a bash at a home on Montauk St. near 119th Road in St. Albans about 5 a.m. — rattling his devastated family to the core.

“I feel weak. I just can’t believe it,” Rankine’s wife Sasha-Marie told the Daily News Thursday morning. “I’m devastated.”

Hours after the father of two’s murder, Sasha-Marie was still trying to wrap her head around what happened.

“He should still be here. It was not his time,” she said, weeping openly. “I don’t care what nobody says. There was no reason for him to die. There was no reason for that.”

Rankine was outside the party with other celebrants when two guests began arguing and one of them pulled a gun and opened fire, hitting Rankine in the right side, cops said.

Police have not yet determined if Rankine was involved in the fight or just a bystander.

Rankine worked as an electrician at Carle Place High School in Long Island, but his passion was performing as a DJ. The Jamaican native enjoyed being a “Sing J” and would bust out raps and rhymes while playing Jamaican reggae tracks.

“It was a hobby at first but it became his passion,” Sasha-Marie said. “He became a local artist. He’d play stage shows, parties, backyard barbecues, anywhere. He would sing about different things. About respecting loyalty, taking care of his family.”

Rankine went to the celebration alone, relatives believe. Hours before he was shot, at about 12 a.m., he stopped by his mother’s home and dropped off his two sons, ages 11 and 2 so she could babysit.

“He called me and I said, ‘Not tonight, not tonight,’ for some reason. I don’t know why I said it,” Cassandra Rankine, 57, told The News. “[He] said, ‘But it’s a big night!’ I don’t know if he was performing at that party, but sometimes he did perform.”

Sasha-Marie admitted she didn’t know her husband was at the party until she was told he had been shot.

“My friend was at the party. She called me and told me he got shot, but she didn’t see it,” she recalled. “She didn’t know until it was over. Everybody was leaving the party, and she was walking to her car and then she saw people around the scene and she walked over and saw that it was him.”

Medics rushed the victim to Jamaica Hospital — where Sasha-Marie had just finished a late-night shift as a telemetry technician.

“I turned right back around and I waited by the emergency room,” she recalled. “They were doing chest compressions in the ambulance and rushed him in. But he was unresponsive.”

The gunman ran off and has not been caught. Cops on Thursday were scouring the area looking for surveillance footage that could help them identify the shooter.

NYPD detectives had most of Montauk St. Thursday morning as they continued their investigation. Several red Solo cups were scattered in the street, along with evidence markers.

Sasha-Marie spent her morning telling their children what had happened.

“[The older boy knows but it’s a processing thing,” she said. “He’s just thinking about it because it’s unreal. [The younger boy] doesn’t understand.”

The heartbroken widow has some personal thoughts about the person who pulled the trigger — and how she wants them to pay.

“They don’t deserve to see the light of day,” she said bitterly, tears welling up in her eyes. “They don’t deserve to live. [Rankine] not the type of person you want to kill. Like, why would you want to do that?

“He’s evil,” she said about the shooter, finally breaking down in tears. “He really ripped my family apart. Me and [Rankine], that’s all my kids had. That’s all we had. What am I gonna do?”