{"id":204251,"date":"2026-04-21T02:58:40","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T02:58:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/204251\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T02:58:40","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T02:58:40","slug":"queens-community-holds-vigil-for-15-year-old-killed-in-park-shooting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/204251\/","title":{"rendered":"Queens community holds vigil for 15-year-old killed in park shooting"},"content":{"rendered":"

ST. ALBANS, Queens (PIX11) \u2014 A large group gathered on the basketball court in Roy Wilkins Park, the same place where 15-year-old Jaden Pierre was shot and killed<\/a>, to hold a vigil in his memory.<\/p>\n

Police say it all started when an argument escalated to a fight<\/a>, followed by gunshots. Sources told PIX11 News that there was supposed to be a water gun fight near the basketball courts.<\/p>\n

More Local News <\/a><\/p>\n

Pierre was rushed to a hospital after being shot in the chest, but he did not make it.<\/p>\n

Cellphone video under review by detectives shows a large group of teens punching Pierre before the shot was fired.<\/p>\n

On Monday, the vigil was organized by the United Clergy Coalition and community leaders.<\/p>\n

Attorney General Letitia James, Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and Queens Borough President Donovan Richards were invited to speak at the vigil.<\/p>\n

Discover more local reporting on our homepage <\/a><\/p>\n

Tisch James attended and demanded that the shooter turn themselves in.<\/p>\n

\u201cSurrender as soon as possible, before NYPD gets to you, or the community! They know who you are, they know where you are, and I would urge you to surrender. Gang life is not a good life,\u201d James said.<\/p>\n

Pierre\u2019s father, who did not give his name at the vigil, said of his son, \u201cthat was my life, he was everything to me, everything, I love you Jaden, I love you with everything in my heart, my blood, my soul,<\/p>\n

There is a $3500 reward for information leading to the shooters\u2019 arrest.<\/p>\n

Submit tips to police by calling Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477), visiting\u00a0crimestoppers.nypdonline.org<\/a>, downloading the NYPD Crime Stoppers mobile app, or texting 274637 (CRIMES) then entering TIP577. Spanish-speaking callers are asked to dial 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).<\/p>\n

Spencer Gustafson is a digital content producer from Long Island who has covered New York state and city news since 2023. See more of his work here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. ALBANS, Queens (PIX11) \u2014 A large group gathered on the basketball court in Roy Wilkins Park, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204252,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[79538,79543,398,9,24,63,329,122,14916,124,123,79539,12186,80784],"class_list":{"0":"post-204251","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-basketball-court","9":"tag-jaden-pierre","10":"tag-letitia-james","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-nyc","14":"tag-pix11","15":"tag-queens","16":"tag-queens-borough-president","17":"tag-queens-headlines","18":"tag-queens-news","19":"tag-roy-wilkins-park","20":"tag-united-clergy-coalition","21":"tag-water-gun-fight"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204251","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=204251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204251\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}