Detectives have recovered images of the masked gunman who killed a 16-year-old boy in Brooklyn just 90 minutes after the victim texted his mother, officials said Friday.
The gunman, who sported a slight mustache and was wearing a grey hooded sweatshirt, stormed up to Tyson “TJ” Harps Jr. and opened fire, shooting him in the head and about the body in front of an apartment building on Eastern Parkway near Rochester Ave. in Crown Heights about 8:45 p.m. Saturday.
Tyson lives in the Bronx, but was visiting with friends in Brooklyn when he was killed, heartbroken relatives said.
His doting mother asked him to text her every hour, which he agreed to do. He had texted his mother just 90 minutes before he was shot, she said.
Tyson Harps, 16, was fatally shot on Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn on Nov. 1, 2025. (GoFundMe)
“I feel like my soul is gone,” his 38-year-old mother, who asked not to be named out of fear for her family’s safety, told the Daily News earlier this week. “I’m so numb and I just keep crying and lying in his bed.”
Tyson usually stays with his godbrother while visiting Brooklyn, his mother said.
“I asked him to check in every other hour, just let me know that he’s okay,” she added. “At 7:21 (p.m.) we texted each other and he was like, ‘Ma, I’m good.” I said, ‘You got to your location yet?’ He said, ‘Yeah, Ma.’”
Tyson died at the scene. Police said he has no criminal history. A motive for the killing was not immediately disclosed.
“To receive a phone call when it happened, I don’t know how to express it,” his mother said through tears. “Why my son? Because he wanted to come home. Why he can’t come home?”
Tyson Harps, 16, was fatally shot in the head in front of this building on Eastern Parkway near Rochester Ave. in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, on Nov. 1. (Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News)
Tyson’s mother raced to the scene after getting the call that her son had been shot. His body was behind police tape still on the ground under a sheet. Cops recovered nine shell casings from the scene.
The gunman wore a mask during the shooting, but cops were able to locate surveillance images of the shooter several blocks away without the mask, officials said. He’s described as Black, about 5-foot-9 with a slim build. He was last seen wearing a hat, grey hooded sweatshirt, black jacket, grey sweatpants and black sneakers.
“I don’t know what happened to my son. I don’t know who knows what,” Tyson’s mother said. “I used to see stories of people losing their kids and I would feel so bad. I would go to my son, ‘I don’t know what I would do if that was me.’ And it is me.”
She has launched a GoFundMe to help pay for her son’s memorial services.
“I’m still trying to figure out how to bury my son,” she added. “We never discussed if God forbid something happens. Did he want to be cremated? Did he want to be buried? Would he like me to be able to walk to him and lay flowers? I don’t even know what to do at this point. But I know I don’t want to let go.”
Citywide through Sunday, murders are down 19% this year, with 266 victims compared to 329 by the same point last year. The number of shooting victims is down 22%, with 745 victims compared to 950 during the same timeframe last year.
Anyone with information regarding the murder suspect is urged to call NYPD Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.