This weekend marks 14 years since 14-year-old Akeal Christopher was shot in the head in Bushwick and later died.<\/p>\n
\u201cI cannot believe it\u2019s 14 years,\u201d said Natasha Christopher, the victim\u2019s mother. \u201cFor me, there isn\u2019t a day that goes by that I don\u2019t miss Akeal.\u201d <\/p>\n
Natasha spent the past 5,112 days searching for justice \u2013 and no arrests have been made.<\/p>\n
\u201cI get up every day longing for [my son], wanting him to be here,\u201d said Natasha.<\/p>\n
It was June 27, 2012, when police said the teenager was shot near Evergreen Avenue and Cornelia Street.<\/p>\n
Investigators previously told News 12 that Akeal was on his way home from a graduation party, when he was part of a group that got into a dispute with alleged gang members who were about the same age.<\/p>\n
Akeal, who was the only victim, spent two weeks in the hospital.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen on July 10, he died on his 15th birthday; and that\u2019s when my whole entire life changed,\u201d said Natasha.<\/p>\n
Following the shooting, officers handed out Crime Stopper flyers with information about the shooting, but it remains a cold case.<\/p>\n
An NYPD spokesperson told News 12 on Friday that the investigation is ongoing.<\/p>\n
The street corner where the shooting happened was named in Akeal\u2019s honor in 2024.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Natasha is turning her pain into purpose. She\u2019s part of a nonprofit called E.N.O.U.G.H., which provides support to families impacted by gun violence.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m still able to help other families,\u201d said Natasha. \u201cI\u2019m still able to make an impact in the community.\u201d <\/p>\n
And as Natasha helps other families, she\u2019s still pleading for someone to come forward and help hers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s okay to do the right thing,\u201d said Natasha. \u201cIf someone saw something, say something. Please give me and my family the closure that we deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This weekend marks 14 years since 14-year-old Akeal Christopher was shot in the head in Bushwick and later…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279620,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-279619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279619","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=279619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279619\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}