Police cuffed Friday the baby-faced teen who allegedly gunned down a 16-year-old boy who was attempting to break up a fight outside a Manhattan school last week.
Henry Thomas, 19, was escorted by cops to the 1st Precinct in Manhattan Friday afternoon after being tracked down by the NYPD to an undisclosed hideout. He had been holed up at the location, according to cops, since he allegedly shot Mahki Brown to death on May 7 in a courtyard located between Varick and Spring Streets.
NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said that Brown was senselessly gunned down after he left the nearby Broome Street Academy upon dismissal. The 16-year-old was apparently trying to break up a fight between two female students before two teenage boys arrived on the scene.
“Two males, unidentified, show up to the scene on a Citi bike. One pedaling, one sitting in the basket,” Chief Kenny said. “Our victim is playing peacemaker here. He steps in to try to de-escalate the situation. One of the kids on the bike pulls out a pistol and fires three times.”
One bullet hit Brown in the head and another in the right femur, cops said. The gunfire sent the nearly 30 youngsters who were at the scene fleeing. A worker who was situated on the roof of a building overlooking the courtyard told amNewYork Metro that he was shocked by the grisly scene.
“We peered over from the roof and saw him bleeding from the leg and head. They were giving him CPR,” a nearby worker told amNewYork Metro on the day of the murder.
Brown was rushed to Bellevue Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 2:52 p.m.
Police sources did not say how they tracked Thomas down and nabbed him.
Thomas was peppered with questions about the shooting from reporters outside the precinct Friday; however, he refused to answer.