The incident unfolded at around 10:52 a.m. inside of 75 Cumberland Walk. Cops say they received a 911 call reporting that shots were fired inside of apartment 12E.
Photo by Dean Moses
Police arrested on Tuesday morning a Brooklyn teenager who allegedly shot his mother’s boyfriend dead earlier this month over a dispute involving smoking marijuana.
Cops had been looking for 16-year-old Tristan Hightower since April 12, when he allegedly opened fire on 43-year-old Jamal Davis at around 10:52 a.m. that morning inside 75 Cumberland Walk in Fort Greene, inside the pair’s 12th-floor apartment.
According to NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny, Hightower was reportedly smoking weed inside the home that morning, which angered his 38-year-old mother, who is three months pregnant.
“She didn’t want the baby to be affected by the smoke. So mom first texts her son and tells him to stop smoking weed. That turns into a verbal dispute. The boyfriend gets involved. Verbal turns into physical,” Kenny said.
Hightower allegedly went into his bedroom and recovered a handgun from a shoebox, then confronted Davis and opened fire, striking him once in the chest and once in the arm before taking off.
EMS rushed Davis to NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Hightower had two previous domestic dispute incidents with his mother, during which the mother made a complaint that he had access to a firearm, police said.
Authorities tracked Hightower to the Bronx on Wednesday afternoon and cuffed him just before 1 p.m. outside of an apartment building. It is believed he had been living on the streets since the shooting.
“He had a backpack with all his belongings in it, and he looked very disheveled, like he’s been living out on the street,” Kenny said.
Hightower is charged with murder and criminal possession of a loaded firearm.
