What to Know
- The NYPD says they're looking for 14-year-old Aaron Nathaniel, accused of killing 16-year-old Timothy 'Timi' Oybeola
- Oyebola, of Queens, was shot in the head while playing basketball on a court in Brownsville after school on Sept. 21
- Oyebola's father hopes to start a basketball-based program to prevent the kind of violence that killed his son; his funeral is Saturday
Police have identified a suspect in the death of a teenager shot while playing basketball at a Brooklyn park last month.
The NYPD says they're looking for 14-year-old Aaron Nathaniel, who's considered armed and dangerous. Police say one of the stray bullets he fired killed Timothy "Timi" Oybeola, 16, on Sept. 21.
"I'd like to meet that person and ask him why he did what he did," said Oyebola's father as he and Oyebola's mother led hundreds of anti-violence marchers at Chester Playground in Brownsville, where their son died.
Oyebola, who's from Queens, was an honors student at Ascend Charter School in Brownsville, and has over and over been called a bright, "good" kid who loved basketball and stayed out of trouble. The 11th-grader already had scholarships on offer.
"He was only playing the game he loved in a public facility," one friend said at the march in his honor Monday.
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In one particularly heart-wrenching moment, Oyebola's mother wiped away tears as someone read aloud the birthday message he penned to her just a week before he died.
"'There's no bond like that between a mother and child,'" read the message. "'You know me in ways no one else ever will. You're my mother, my confidante, my hero.'"
Among the friends, teachers, public officials and neighbors who spoke at the rally was a former U.S. Marine who delivered first aid to the dying teen.
"That was the toughest day of my life," he said. "I never had to deal with a kid dying in my hands."
Oyebola's father hopes to start a basketball-based program to prevent the kind of violence that killed his son.
"I know I cannot get my son back," he said at the rally, "but we can prevent this from happening to another 16-year-old playing in the park."
Oyebola's funeral is scheduled for Saturday.
