Teenager Shot Dead In Harlem Public Housing Development: Police

HARLEM, NY — The NYPD is investigating the fatal shooting of a 15-year-old boy in a Harlem public housing development, police said.

Jeremiah Draper was shot at least once Friday night outside a St. Nicholas Houses building on West 131st Street near Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard, police said. EMS pronounced the teenager dead at the scene and no arrests have been made, police said.

Investigators believe that Draper was hit by a stray bullet, but the boy's family and witnesses of the shooting contradicted that claim. Draper's mother, 47-year-old Dawn Bluford told the Daily News "My son was a good boy. He was a good son. This was not a stray bullet. He was murdered."

Bluford said that her son was hanging out with his friends when he was shot and that he didn't have problems with anybody. Draper's friend Gregory Bermudez was sitting next to him when he was shot. Bermudez told the Daily News that he warned his friends about two people who looked suspicious when one of them "just fired."

Draper's death will be the third recorded homicide in Harlem's 32nd police precinct so far this year, according to precinct crime statistics as of May 12. At this time last year there had been zero murders in the precinct. Five total murders took place within the precinct last year. The 32nd police precinct spans Central Harlem from West 127th Street to West 155th Street between St. Nicholas Avenue and Fifth Avenue.