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New York Post
Gang member expected to be charged for tragic 2012 shooting death of NYC tennis-loving teen: sources
By Larry Celona, Kyle Schnitzer,
3 days ago
A reputed gang member locked up in Florida is set to be charged in the tragic slaying of a tennis-loving teen more than a decade after the innocent honor roll student was shot dead at a Bronx park , law-enforcement sources said Friday.
Steve Boria is expected to be extradited to New York to face murder charges for the cold case killing of 14-year-old Kemar Bryan Brooks, a high schooler who was found fatally shot in Haffen Park in July 2012, according to the sources.
The Bronx District Attorney’s Office declined to comment.
Kemar Bryan Brooks was fatally gunned down after going out to play tennis at Hafften Park in the Bronx in 2012.
Sources said Boria, an apparent member of the Bronx’s “Slut Gang,” was long suspected of gunning down the teen, who was out playing tennis with friends on July 26, 2012 when he was hit by a stray bullet.
The case grew cold, but investigators got a lifeline in 2018 when cops recovered a gun they believed to be the murder weapon, ABC7 reported at the time .
Family members of Kemar Bryan Brooks react at the scene of the shooting. TOMAS E. GASTON
Boria is serving a 15-year prison sentence at a federal lockup in Florida after pleading guilty to gun and drug charges in October 2019.
Federal prosecutors said that Boria, who operated under the nickname “Chrome,” was the “most violent member” of the Slut Gang, a group that terrorized the community around the Bronx’s Boston Secor Houses with shootings, robberies, drug dealing and other crimes.
Boria committed several shootings on behalf of the gang, including one on Sept. 1, 2012 at the public housing complex where he targeted members of the rival 2Fly gang, according to court papers.
Cops said at the time that Brooks was struck by a stray bullet while seeking shelter during a thunderstorm. TOMAS E. GASTON
The NYCHA development is less than a mile from the park where Brooks would often stay out playing tennis with his friends.
But a thunderstorm on the night of his death forced him to run and seek shelter at a nearby gazebo when he was tragically struck by a stray bullet , cops said at the time.
Cassell Brooks, the father of Kemar, discovered his son’s body in the park after the shooting. TOMAS E. GASTON
The witness also saw the alleged shooter enter the west side of the park and fire toward the pool, which is in the same direction as the gazebo, cops said.
Kemar Bryan Brooks’ went unsolved for 12 years until Steve Boria, a reputed gang member, was charged with the murder.
“My heart dropped,” Cassell Brooks, Kemar’s father, said in a 2012 interview. “There was no sign of this [happening]. [Kemar] was a brilliant kid. He was not a child who was ever in trouble. He was an A student.”
Kemar — a ninth-grader at the Bronx Academy of Health Careers — was an honor-roll student who bowled and loved playing tennis.
He was the youngest of five siblings, and came to the US from Jamaica just two years before the fatal shooting.
Boria’s attorney in the 2019 case didn’t immediately return a request for comment Friday.
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