A 17-year-old suspect has been arrested for the Mother’s Day murder of a teen drill rapper in Brooklyn, police said Thursday.
The suspect, who name was not released because he is a minor, is accused of shooting 18-year-old Quah’mir Cruz on Blake Ave. near Mother Gaston Boulevard in Brownsville about 3:05 p.m. May 10. He was arrested Wednesday for murder, assault, gun possession and reckless endangerment.
Cruz, shot in the chest, called out his younger brother’s nickname as the sibling raced from the family’s apartment in NYCHA’s Van Dyke Houses, just feet from the scene, and lifted the victim onto an ambulance stretcher.
“DaiDai, DaiDai,” Quah’mir gasped as Daiveon Cruz, 17, came to his aid.
Medics transported Quah’mir to Brookdale University Hospital but he could not be saved.
Quah’mir Cruz was fatally shot on Blake Ave. near Mother Gaston Blvd. in Brownsville, Brooklyn, on May 10. (Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News)
“To know that he’s gone and I can’t do nothing about it, it really hurts me,” Daiveon said at a vigil two days later. “Honestly, I’m not OK. It’s just crazy. That was my best friend. My first friend.”
The victim’s mother was crushed.
“My heart is broken into pieces,” Danielle Cruz said at the vigil, attended by hundreds. “I miss him so much. I feel like a piece of me is gone.”
Quah’mir, who rapped under the name Boe Quahh, was featured in music videos, including “Backdoor B’z,” “Top 4” and “OE Anthem,” which received more than 125,000 combined views on YouTube.
Drill rap is known for lyrics that often focus on gang rivalries and has been associated with numerous fatal shootings.
Quah’mir Cruz was fatally shot on Blake Ave. near Mother Gaston Blvd. in Brownsville, Brooklyn, on May 10. (Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News)
But Quah’mir’s family defended his character, saying he should not be defined by his sometimes violent lyrics.
“They got this concept of him being a drill rapper and being a negative person, but it’s not that,” said Quah’mir’s stepfather, Shaun Davis. “Drill rapping is a way of rapping. It’s not a lifestyle. It’s not him.”
Quah’mir worked two jobs, including a gig in construction and another job at the Van Dyke Community Center, where he engaged with neighborhood kids through an anti-violence program.
“(The victim) would talk to us about his desire to not get ‘lost on the streets’ and he was working every day to make sure that didn’t happen,” Valerie Barton-Richardson, president and CEO of CAMBA, which operates the community center, said at the time. “We at CAMBA are saddened beyond belief that our community, our city and our world will never get to see how brilliant his light would have shined in the decades to come.”
Balloons are released at a memorial for slain drill ripper Quah’mir Cruz in Brownsville on May 12. (Roni Jacobson / New York Daily News)
Barton-Richardson said that Quah’mir had recently earned his OSHA safety-training certificate and was working with CAMBA staff to update his résumé just a week before he was killed.
“His dream was to put me and his mom in a mansion,” the victim’s stepfather said at the vigil. “He didn’t want people putting flowers and balloons in the air. He didn’t want this.”
It’s not clear what sparked the shooting or if it had anything to do with drill rap.