A suspect believed to be responsible for the shooting death of a 17-year-old girl inside a vacant apartment of a sprawling Brooklyn complex has been arrested, according to police.
Javone Duncan, who lives in the borough, was arrested and charged Wednesday with murder and weapon possession for the slaying of Raelynn Cameron on Oct. 10, police said. Attorney information for the 22-year-old Duncan was not immediately available.
Officers responding to a late-night 911 call at the East New York apartment building on Eldert Lane found Cameron in the lobby, shot in the chest. The Queens resident was taken to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead — two weeks shy of her 18th birthday.
It wasn't clear what Cameron, a freshman at Medgar Evers College, was doing in the building at the time. Police said Cameron was in a vacant sixth-floor apartment, inside of which detectives found one shell casing and a trail of blood. Detectives also said there is surveillance showing two men leaving her downstairs before 11 p.m. that evening.
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Law enforcement sources initially said police were looking into whether a gun may have been fired accidentally, but Cameron's family later said that narrative didn't add up.
"She had potential. She was going somewhere, she was going to be someone," said mom Cassandra Adams.
Cameron’s mom and brother both said they got texts from her for help after people from the building called 911. They also said they don't know who she was with.
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"I just want the truth. I just want justice. I just want to be able to tell the story of how her life began and ended," said her brother, Ralik Smith.
A church volunteer, Cameron had been staying with her older brother in Bed-Stuy for the past few months.
"She was my world. She was loved. I don’t know who else to say. But I want to speak her story because we lose too many good ones this way," said Adams. "I will never be the same."
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.
