Dubar Knowles: Schenectady homicide victim remembered

SCHENECTADY, N.Y. ( NEWS10 ) — The police investigation into who shot and killed Dubar Tyreek Knowles, 15, at a party in Schenectady on Saturday continues. Knowles’ former football coaches offered positive remembrances of him.

“Quiet kid. Kind of stayed to his-self until he got to know you. Once he got to know you and he felt the love he was a good kid man!” said Knowles’ former coach Kawaun Wiggins.

“He had this smile…could light a room up,” said former coach Karl Lafountain. “His heart was huge, it was big. He was just dealt a bad hand in life” Lafountain continued.

The coach said Knowles wanted to rise above his rough circumstances, including the murder of his sister Medina years earlier . Lafountain said he wanted to be there for his student.

“I remember driving by saying hey Tyreek , I’m picking you up today you’re one of my guys ,” Lafountain recalled. The coach says he would pick Knowles up for games, even brought him around his family and shared meals with him.“He was going to be something special and it just breaks my heart to know that that’s not going to happen now” LaFountain continued.

At the backyard crime scene, from discarded soda cans to Halloween decorations, remnants of what was supposed to be a Halloween-themed Sweet 16 party were littered everywhere. Investigators were still combing through the Congress Street backyard for clues on Tuesday.

“Much of it is trying to run down…trying to find witnesses from the area, as well as looking at anyone who may have surveillance cameras, or you know, ring doorbells. Things along those lines that may have captured this” said Schenectady PD Lieutenant Ryan Macherone.

A 13-year-old girl who was also shot at that gathering remains in stable condition. Anyone with any information is asked to contact Schenectady police at (518) 788-6566.

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