A Brooklyn mom opted to remember her son’s happy life rather than his brutal death on the wrong end of a gun.
“He was a compassionate dude, everyone loved him,” the devastated mother of shooting victim Tevin Samuel recalled Tuesday. “He was always the life of the party. Always vibrant, always smiling. He was loved by the community.”
The wounded Samuel, 29, was thrown from a passing vehicle early Sunday and left to die on Clarkson Ave. near E. 53rd St. in East Flatbush, according to police. The victim, shot in the left thigh, was pronounced dead at Kings County Hospital following a 5:53 a.m. call to 911, cops said, with the killer still on the loose two days later.
The distraught parent received the shocking news from police after returning home from a Sunday church service.
“I parked my car and went upstairs and there were two detectives at my door,” she said. “That’s how I found out.”
Police were hunting for more details in the fatal shooting that left the victim’s blood pooled on a Brooklyn sidewalk. The mom said detectives told her the killing looked like it happened during a robbery.
According to cops, Samuel was shot somewhere else and then dumped on the street as the car fled into the darkness before sunrise. A neighbor recalled how his wife heard screaming from across the street, and initially believed the noise came from late-night revelers headed home.
The mom described Samuel as a good son who watched out for his friends, including one who recently underwent surgery. Samuel made it a point to take the friend’s daughter to school every morning while his buddy recuperated, she said.
Samuel attended an event with friends earlier Sunday, and checked in by phone with his teen siblings in the hours before his slaying.
“I talk to him every other day, every day,” said the mother. “I’m still trying to wrap my head around it. I can’t eat.”