two gunmen entered<\/a> the Hangar 11 Burgers & Brews on Metropolitan Avenue at about 1:30 a.m. and walked to the dining area where they confronted a group of people at a table near the couple and engaged in a gang-related argument. The suspects pulled out handguns and fired multiple shots, and McKay was struck in the left arm by a stray bullet that traveled to his chest and struck his heart.<\/p>\nEMS rushed him to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cIf those people who shot my son, if they had gotten to know my son, they wouldn\u2019t have killed my son,\u201d the victim\u2019s father said in an emotionally charged video he posted to social media in the days after the homicide. \u201cMy son had such a big heart, and they shot my son in his heart. If they had gotten to know my son, they would have loved him too, because everyone loved my son. Guys, I don\u2019t wish this on my worst enemy.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Demetri](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/father-bystander-murdered-kew-gardens-funeral02.jpg\")
Demetri McKay, Sr. spoke of his son who was murdered last month in a Kew Gardens burger bar while he was on a date with his girlfriend.Photo via Facebook<\/p>\n
McKay, Jr. left behind a 8-year-old son and the extended family lived together in a home on 216th Street in Queens Village. McKay, Sr. said his son loved working for the MTA and drove his Q22 bus up and down Hollis Avenue.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy son meant so much to me, I poured all I had into him,\u201d he said. \u201cI talked to him about staying out of trouble and being respectable to his elders. My son was beautiful. He was the protector; he was the peacemaker in my family. He always looked after his sisters, his nieces, his nephews. He was just that guy.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Demetri](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/father-bystander-murdered-kew-gardens-funeral03.jpg\")
Demetri McKay Jr. with his 8-year-old son Cameron.Photo via Facebook<\/p>\n
He closed his video with a message directly to the southeast Queens community.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I want to come out of this, I want love to come out of this because my son, he loved people,\u201d McKay Sr. said through tears. \u201cWhen I talk about our community, I\u2019m talking about our Black community. We go through so much, it\u2019s like the whole world\u2019s against us, and then we turn against each other. It\u2019s not good guys, and we \u2018ve got to stop and think about what we\u2019re doing. We can\u2019t hurt each other. We\u2019ve got to love each other and that\u2019s all I want. I\u2019m going to promote love and peace.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Police](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/father-bystander-murdered-kew-gardens-funeral04.jpg\")
Police are still looking for the two gunmen who opened fire inside the restaurant, striking McKay Jr. with a stray bullet. He was rushed by EMS to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.Photos courtesy of the NYPD<\/p>\n
The NYPD is still searching for the two suspects. One hauntingly wore a black hooded sweatshirt with the word Love in white lettering across the chest, black sweatpants, black sneakers and a black face covering. The second gunman wore a pink track suit, a black face covering, and white sneakers. The celebration of life and funeral of Demetri McKay, Jr. starts at 10 a.m. on Friday, April 10, at the Mt. Olivet Baptist Church of Hollis, located at 202-03 Hollis Avenue, where he drove the Q22 MTA bus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Demetri McKay, Jr., 29, will have his funeral at Mt. Olivet Baptist Church in Hollis, where his father…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":188571,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[75586,64353,3705,75587,9,24,63,122,124,123,75588],"class_list":{"0":"post-188570","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-demitri-mckay","9":"tag-hangar-11-burgers-brews","10":"tag-jr","11":"tag-mt-olivet-baptist-church","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-nyc","15":"tag-queens","16":"tag-queens-headlines","17":"tag-queens-news","18":"tag-sr"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Screenshot\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/father-bystander-murdered-kew-gardens-funeral01-e1775583774732.jpg\")
\t\t\t<\/p>\n