A 16-year-old suspect has been arrested for shooting to death 17-year-old Trequan Wingfield in front of his siblings outside the Polo Grounds Towers in Manhattan earlier this week, police said Saturday.
Cops grabbed the teenage triggerman Friday night and charged him with murder and weapons possession. His name was not released because of his age.
Police believe gang tensions at the Polo Grounds NYCHA complex in Washington Heights led to the Wednesday afternoon killing.
Trequan was hanging out with his brother and others in the courtyard outside the Polo Grounds Towers on Frederick Douglass Blvd. just before 4 p.m. when he was fatally shot, police and family told the Daily News.
Surveillance footage recovered from the scene showed that Trequan was targeted by someone who recognized him, a police source with knowledge of the case said.
Trequan had just walked past the gunman when the teenage suspect whirled around and opened fire. It was not immediately disclosed if the victim was in a gang or affiliated with neighborhood gang members.
“His mother is coming apart,” Trequan’s grandmother, Arnetta Washington, told The News on Wednesday. “They shot him through the back and it went through his heart. There’s nothing they could do.”
The sight of the struck teen on the sidewalk set off pandemonium among Trequan’s friends and relatives.
“They were screaming, ‘He’s dying! He’s dying!'” said another woman who witnessed the scene outside the Polo Grounds, where the victim lived. “He had a lot of blood on his face. There was so much blood I couldn’t see where he was hit. He was too young. He was just a kid.”
The gunman also came close to striking Trequan’s 16-year-old brother.
“I was right there,” the sibling said. “He shot my brother.”
At least six shots were fired, witnesses said.
“I heard the shots. He was on the floor, bleeding,” said another witness, who declined to give her name for fear of retribution from the killer. “He was face-down. He was bleeding. There was a bare-chested kid in black basketball shorts. He was screaming, ‘Wake up! Wake up!”
Trequan had just finished his junior year in high school, relatives said. He worked in Wendy’s and was expecting to be a father soon.
The teenage suspect’s arraignment was pending in Manhattan Criminal Court.
