The devastated mother of an 11-year-old girl killed by a stray bullet outside a Bronx nail salon begged her murderer in court Wednesday after one of the 10-year-old thugs was attacked by a 10-year prison sentence.
Yanisha Gomez said in an emotional statement from the Bronx Supreme Court that the pain of losing Little Kihara Tei in the senseless 2022 shooting remains fresh three years later.
“I don’t want this nightmare from anyone,” Gomez snapped to the murderer who faced the baby. “Mothers should never feel this pain. Innocent children should not be taken away from such mothers. I would like to ask Y’all: “Do you feel regret, regret, shame, guilt?”
“Your intention is to take another young teenager with you, because everything is to value life and take away the soul that loves God,” she said. “Y’all denied her the opportunity to graduate, fall in love and live a life. She took all of her dreams.”
Matthew Godwin, who was sentenced to 10 years as part of the contract he sued on Wednesday, said he was 15 when he and 18-year-old Omar Bojang rode in a suspicious gunfire for the 13-year-old on May 16, 2022, but instead hit Kihara.
She was rushed to Lincoln Hospital, where she was declared dead.
A teenager who hits a gun caught in security camera footage was arrested and arrested on June 3, 2022 for second-degree murder and was later held behind a bar.
“I’m very sorry for what I did and the pain I caused you,” Godwin told court on Wednesday. “I am extremely disappointed in the pain I have caused to you and the pain I have caused to you. I take full responsibility for my actions.”
“As I got older, I realized I had taken the life of an 11-year-old innocent young girl,” he said. “In the evening, I cry to fall asleep knowing what I did. There’s no day when I don’t feel any regret or regret.”
They pleaded guilty last month in exchange for an agreed sentence, with Godwin spending 10 years and Bojang expected to be sentenced to 15 years on May 14 after meeting with a probation officer.
The older gunman also spoke to the girl’s mom in court/
“I just want to pay my dues to society and show everyone that you know, I’m not a monster that everyone has created,” Bojang said. “I don’t want this pain from anyone. I’m sorry to my mother, father and family for letting you down. They raised me to be better than that.”
Bronx da Darcel Clark called the fatal shooting “a catastrophe for our youth.”
Kihara was a student at MS 424, the Bronx Academy of Multimedia.
The bubbling girl’s family said she was named after Chiara, a turnip from Disney’s animated flick, “The Lion King II.”
“Dad says Kyohara is the daughter of the Lions because their family is always together like a pride, so they’re always together,” police told reporters after the shooting.
The girl’s tragic death comes in the midst of a series of shootings in the borough of five people targeting teens and young people, including the 17-year-old son of a NYPD officer, a 14-year-old boy injured in the Bronx a week ago.
“I can’t believe I’m in this position,” Janisha Gomez told the Bronx Supreme Court on Wednesday. “When I was a mother, I say I will never forget the day I lost my child. I will continue to seek justice from God from here or from my afterlife.
“Our only hope is that justice wins.”
