A Brooklyn girl who followed Borough President Eric Adams’ recommendation for New Yorkers to settle disputes neighbor-to-neighbor reasonably than calling 911 wound up shot lifeless after she confronted some punks setting off unlawful fireworks, the sufferer’s grieving mom stated.
Shatavia Walls, 33, was blasted eight instances in an East New York public-housing complicated on July 7, merely for asking the fiends to take their harmful show away from a gaggle of taking part in children precisely how Adams had urged constituents to behave within the face of the pyrotechnic plague.
“She watched the information. Yes, she heard it,” Helen Testagros, Walls’ heartbroken mom, instructed The Post on Sunday, referring to Adams’ recommendation. “It was most likely at the back of her thoughts.”
Amid skyrocketing complaints of unlawful fireworks detonations, Adams on June 21 stated that individuals ought to discuss to their neighbors in regards to the “nonviolent act,” reasonably than name the authorities and danger a “heavy-handed” police response.
But Testagros stated that to take that strategy on the imply streets is to take your life into your personal arms.
“It’s not a good suggestion. You don’t know who you’re approaching,” she stated. “These children are usually not respectful anymore. … They’re extra ruthless.”
Walls discovered that out the laborious method on July 4, Testagros stated.
While visiting her mom, siblings and prolonged household in NYCHA’s Pink Houses, Walls was troubled by a gaggle setting off fireworks in a playground on the sprawling improvement as younger kids performed simply ft away, Testagros stated.
A “scuffle” ensued, and one of many creeps chased Walls into her mom’s constructing, pulled out a gun and fired a single shot at her, in response to Testagros.
The spherical missed Walls, who had the presence of thoughts to scoop up each the shell casing and the New York State driver’s license of the alleged gunman who dropped it whereas fleeing, Testagros stated.
Walls known as 911 to report the assault, and equipped them with the identify, domestic tackle and bodily description of her alleged assailant, based mostly on the ID she recovered, Testagros stated.
But the NYPD was evidently unable to meet up with the suspect — an alleged gangbanger whose identify is being withheld by The Post as a result of he’s but to be arrested, charged or formally recognized as needed — earlier than a second run-in on July 7.
Undeterred by the gunshot simply days prior, Walls and pal Kelvin Hernandez once more requested a band of fuse-lighting fiends to scram from the playground round 8:30 p.m., in response to police sources.
That group didn’t embrace the person who’d beforehand shot at Walls, however certainly one of them went to retrieve him and he got here working, Testagros stated.
“He was chasing her, hopping over the gates, capturing,” stated Testagros.
After one spherical discovered its goal, the gunman moved in for the kill.
“He walked over,” stated Testagros. “She was on the bottom shot. And he saved capturing till the gun went ‘click on, click on, click on,’ ” signifying an empty clip.
Walls, a home-health aide and cleaner who labored at Port Authority Bus Terminal, was struck eight instances — however at first survived.
Both she and Hernandez, who was additionally shot, have been hospitalized, and recognized to cops the person accountable from their beds, Testagros stated.
While Hernandez recuperated, Walls succumbed to her wounds late Friday at Brookdale Hospital.
In a press release, Adams, a presumptive 2021 mayoral candidate, prolonged his sympathies to Walls’ household and decried town’s spike in gun violence however didn’t absolutely dismiss his neighborly strategy.
“My coronary heart goes out to the household of Shatavia Walls on this horrific incident,” he stated. “Gun violence has damage too many harmless folks in our metropolis, from 1-year-old Davell Gardner to this dynamic younger lady. Dangerous individuals are capturing harmless folks for mindless causes. I renew my name for cracking down on the scourge of unlawful weapons.
“Our name is to proceed constructing an ecosystem of public security that features group response and police,” he continued. “Whenever somebody displays violence we should always name the police, however at any time when we will talk peacefully with our neighbors, we should always accomplish that.”
Testagros too bemoaned the grip of gangs and weapons on metropolis streets.
“It’s all about mission fame for them. Quick to shoot,” she stated. “They don’t care about your life.
“This is a prepare coming down,” she continued, referring to the proliferation of gun-toting gangs. “You gotta cease them. It’s going to worsen.”
The killer stays within the wind.
