The distraught mother of a 17-year-old Queens lady shot useless whereas sitting within the passenger’s seat of a automotive told The Submit Sunday that the gun might have fired by chance when the gunman was playing around with the weapon.
The 15-year-old suspect had the weapon with him within the again seat when Shantasia O’Brian was shot within the again, mom Karen O’Brian said in an interview. The alleged shooter was the youthful brother of the sufferer’s boyfriend, who was within the driver’s seat throughout the lethal incident, O’Brian said.
“I don’t know what he was doing with a gun. It doesn’t make any sense, why do it’s important to play with a gun?” O’Brian said of the alleged teen shooter.
“And he was there with a gun and he shot her. The officer told me he was taking part in with the gun and it was an accident. It was an accident, however I misplaced my youngster and she will’t come again.”
The boy was charged Saturday with manslaughter, legal possession of a weapon within the second diploma and tampering with bodily proof, cops said.
O’Brian, 44, said authorities told her Shantasia probably didn’t know the gun was within the automotive.
“So she obtained shot and didn’t even know what was occurring,” she said from her Queens Village house.
She said police additionally told her they don’t know extra as a result of the suspect’s dad and mom lawyered up.
“In order that they don’t know the place he obtained the gun from. They don’t know the place the gun got here into play,” O’Brian said.
“They don’t know what occurred,” she continued. “They simply know she was the passenger within the entrance seat and he was within the again, taking part in with a gun, and he by chance shot her.”
All of the extra devastating, Shantasia was house for the weekend from Stony Brook College on Lengthy Island the place she was a freshman to have fun her 18th birthday Saturday.
The night time of the shooting, her mom deliberate on taking her out to have fun. She now regrets selecting her up Thursday to convey her house.
“And now I’ve this guilt on my conscience,” O’Brian said.
When she obtained a cellphone name from Shantasia’s mobile phone shortly after 5 p.m., as a substitute of her daughter on the opposite line it was the teenager’s boyfriend O’Brian didn’t know she had.
“He said, ‘Shanny’s been shot.’ I began screaming. I said, ‘Who’s this?’ and he wouldn’t say who he was,” O’Brian recalled.
“He said, ‘They’re taking her to the hospital.’ I said, ‘What hospital? What hospital?’ And he said, ‘Once we discover out we’ll let you understand.’”
Shantasia was rushed to Jamaica hospital through EMS the place she was pronounced useless simply earlier than 6 p.m.
The aspiring pharmacist was enthusiastic about faculty, O’Brian said. Since elementary college, she by no means obtained into hassle and was a straight-A scholar.
“So this actually hurts me that that’s simply it. That’s it? Shanny’s simply gone and that’s simply it? I can’t settle for that. I don’t assume it’s truthful to her, both,” O’Brian said.
“This boy doesn’t know what number of lives he ruined. My coronary heart is in shambles.”
Shantasia leaves behind three siblings, together with her child sister who requested her mom why docs couldn’t give her massive sister a brand new coronary heart to dwell.
“I inform her, ‘It doesn’t work that method.’ She said, “ ‘Mother, I’m by no means going to see her once more?’ I said, ‘No, Shanny’s gone. She’s gone.’ ”
