Investigators say a 14-year-old boy was shot in the head while sitting in a car late Friday in Sunset Park.
NEW YORK, N.Y. — A 14-year-old boy was fatally shot late Friday night while sitting in a car in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park neighborhood, and police said Saturday they were searching for three suspects who fled after the gunfire near 46th Street and Ninth Avenue.
The killing quickly became both a homicide investigation and a fresh measure of concern over youth gun violence in New York City. Police identified the victim as Johary Cantave of Brooklyn. Investigators said no arrests had been made by Saturday night, and officers were still trying to determine what led to the confrontation, whether Cantave had been targeted and how the suspects escaped.
Police said the shooting happened just before midnight, at about 11:40 p.m. or 11:50 p.m., depending on the initial account released by authorities and local reports. Cantave was sitting in the back seat of a car being driven home when three people approached. Investigators said an argument broke out near the vehicle, then shots were fired. Pedro Castellano, the driver, said he had been following his son, who was riding a moped ahead of the car. Castellano said the group began harassing his son on Ninth Avenue. “I seen one of them pull out a gun, so I told my son to run,” Castellano said. Moments later, he said, the shots hit his car.
Cantave was struck in the head, according to police. Castellano said he rushed the boy to Maimonides Medical Center after realizing he had been hit. Hospital staff pronounced the teen dead. Outside the hospital, police cordoned off the vehicle that brought him there. Video from the scene showed its rear window blown out. Investigators canvassed the area near the shooting site and recovered at least one shell casing. Police described the suspects as three males wearing black clothing and ski masks. Authorities had not publicly said Saturday whether the suspects were on foot, on mopeds or in another vehicle when they fled. They also had not said whether surveillance video had captured the shooting or the escape route.
What is clear is that the case unfolded against a backdrop of broader concern about young people caught up in shootings. The NYPD said in January that 2025 ended with the fewest shooting incidents and shooting victims in city history. At the same time, the department said youth violence rose as a share of that violence. According to the NYPD, 14% of shooting victims in 2025 were younger than 18, and 18% of shooting perpetrators were also under 18, both the highest shares since the department began tracking those measures in 2018. That tension has shaped the city’s public safety debate: overall shootings have fallen, but cases involving teenagers still draw sharp attention because of the age of victims and suspects and the speed with which street disputes can turn deadly.
By Saturday, investigators were still sorting through the basic questions that often shape the early stage of a homicide case. Police had not announced a motive. They had not said whether Cantave knew the gunman or whether the dispute centered on someone else in the group. Detectives also had not said how many shots were fired or whether more than one weapon was used. Those unanswered questions are likely to guide the next phase of the investigation as officers review nearby cameras, interview witnesses and trace any physical evidence recovered at the scene and from the damaged car. No court dates had been scheduled by Saturday because no suspect had been taken into custody.
For people close to the boy, the official questions sat beside immediate grief. Castellano, who said he had been driving Cantave home as a favor, described him as “a good kid” who did not deserve what happened. Family and neighbors told local television reporters that Cantave was known as Chris and was only months away from graduating middle school. A family friend who said she had known him for years remembered him as a child who played with other kids in the hallway and regularly knocked on her door with candy or a soda in hand. His older brother recalled their last exchange before the boy went out Friday night, saying he had told him to stay safe and not be out too long.
As of Sunday, police had publicly identified the victim, released a basic description of the suspects and continued to ask for information that could lead to arrests. The next milestone in the case is likely to be a more detailed police update once detectives determine a motive or identify the three people they say were involved.
Author note: Last updated March 8, 2026.