Shaaliver Douse was shot to death just after 3 a.m. in Melrose when he kept firing a black Astra 9-mm. pistol after two uniformed police officers yelled at him to drop the gun, said NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly.
Kelly said the teen — who was due in court on a gun-possession rap and had been arrested in May on an attempted murder charge — is the youngest person to die in a police-involved shooting that he can recall.
Douse was chasing an unknown man down E. 151st St. when the officers intervened.
“It is undetermined at this time whether he fired at the officer or the unknown male,” Kelly said at a Sunday evening press conference.
The commissioner said the gun Douse had was made in Spain and detectives were investigating how it ended up in the teen’s hands.
While police don’t yet know where Douse got the weapon, Kelly suspected it came from out of state.
“The mayor had a press conference last week. He talked about (how) 90% of the guns we confiscate come from out of state,” Kelly said.
“We don’t know the history of this gun. It will take us a while, but we will get a history on it,” he vowed. “But most likely, if 90% of the guns we’re confiscating come from out of state, most likely this gun has been purchased out of state or somehow obtained out of state, stolen, and brought to New York City.”
The deadly encounter Sunday unfolded after two rookie cops — a 26-year-old white officer and his black 27-year-old partner — heard gunfire while on patrol on E. 151st St. near Courtlandt Ave.
The officers encountered a terrified man running for his life in the middle of the street with Douse in pursuit, firing wildly at his foe, Kelly said.
He said Douse would have killed the man if the officers hadn’t been there to stop him.
“These officers stopped that from happening,” said Kelly. “I don’t see what the officers could have done any differently.”
He said that while the shooting appeared justified, a full investigation was under way.
But Douse’s distraught aunt, Quwana Barcene, 35, said cops didn’t have to kill her nephew — who she said was a sophomore at the Alfred E. Smith Career and Technical Education High School in the Bronx.
“That’s was my sister’s only baby,” Barcene said. “I’m tired of the police getting away with murder.
“Trayvon Martin is never going to end. Sean Bell happened to my nephew,” she said. “This rookie cop — please bring him up on charges as a murderer.”
The names of the cops, who both joined the NYPD in January, were not immediately released. They were part of an Operation Impact patrol assigned to the high-crime area.
Police were still searching for the unidentified man whom Douse appeared to be intent on killing.
The incident started in front of the Hizam Family Deli on Courtlandt Ave. at E. 151st St., where a security camera captured Douse firing at least three shots at his target from 40 feet away, Kelly said.
Another security camera film showed Douse, wearing a white T-shirt and jeans, chasing the man, dressed in a black T-shirt and black shorts, up E. 151st St.
When the teen fired a fourth shot after the officers told him to drop the gun and freeze, the 26-year-old white officer fired a single fatal shot, police said. The suspect was hit in the lower jaw and died at the scene.
One 9-mm. shell casing was found near his body, matching the other three collected in front of the deli.
“We don’t know why he was shooting,” said Kelly, who expressed condolences to Douse’s mother, Shanise Farrar. Douse lived with her in the Morris II Houses on E. 170th St..
Asked if he planned to reach out directly to the victim’s family, Kelly said, “I’m not planning to do that at this juncture. I may.”
Douse, at only 14, had a growing rap sheet. He was scheduled to appear in Bronx Supreme Court on Aug. 23 on a felony charge of possessing a loaded gun, stemming from a Bronx arrest in October 2012.
On May 16, police say, Douse shot a 15-year-old boy in the left shoulder at Boston Road and Jefferson Place, just a mile and a half from where Douse died Sunday.
His alleged victim was treated at Lincoln Hospital and survived.
Douse was arrested a week later and charged with attempted murder, assault, menacing and criminal possession of a weapon, officials said.
“There was insufficient evidence,” said Steven Reed, spokesman for Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson. “The complaining witness could not make an identification.”
Bloomberg last week listed the top 10 states where guns pouring into the city originated. The No. 1 state was Virginia, where 322 guns involved in crimes in the city were traced to.
“To those who say, ‘Stay out of our state.’ Our answer is, “We’d love to. Just as soon as you stop letting guns seep into the black market and land in the hands of criminals and be used to murder our citizens,” the mayor said.
source-www.nydailynews.com