After a high school basketball star was shot and killed at the housing project where she lived, friends and loved ones rallied Thursday to stop the violence, some weeping as they described their pain and love for her.
Tayshana Murphy, 18, was gunned down early Sunday at the Grant Houses in Upper Manhattan.
A rally at the housing project began after 5 p.m. Thursday, with the crowd chanting "I am peace."
"We are crushed," said an aunt of Murphy. "We're not supposed to be here, doing this."
A teenage witness who saw Murphy gunned down said she is "still devastated."
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said authorities are looking for Robert Cartagena and Tyshawn Brookington in connection with the shooting. They were seen on surveillance video with guns in their waistbands.
Friends and relatives of Murphy say the shooting is the latest tragedy stemming from an ongoing battle between the Grant Houses and the nearby Manhattanville Houses.
The two suspects live at the Manhattanville Houses.
Murphy was in her senior year at Murry Bergtraum High School for Business Careers and was a nationally ranked guard on the girls basketball team.
Witnesses said they believe the gunmen mistook Murphy for someone who had been involved in an assault earlier Sunday, and that she was trying to outrun a gunman in a hallway when she was shot.
Nicknamed "Chicken," Murphy was one of the top girls basketball players in New York City.
