A “totally innocent” teenager was shot and killed by a drive-by gunman in Brooklyn this week in what police believe is a tragic case of mistaken identity. Her grief-stricken sister said she only went out that night to give her friend a ride home from work.
NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenney told reporters that around 2:45 a.m. Tuesday, Christian Montrose was parked in front of his home on East 104th Street near Avenue K in Canarsie. (19 years old) that someone had gotten into a black Acura and ambushed him. .
“When they got out of the car, they were having a conversation and they ended up getting shot,” Kenney said at a news conference Thursday. “He had been shot multiple times and had three bullet wounds: one on the right side of his face, some teeth knocked out, one on the right side of his abdomen, and one on his right forearm.”
Police sources said the seriously injured boy managed to escape to an apartment, where his older brother met him.
“He’s trying to talk to his brother, but he can’t,” Kenny said. “He’s actually choking on his own blood.”
He was rushed to Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
“[What] What we’re looking at right now is probably [a case of] It’s the wrong person,” Kenny said. “This kid is a good kid. He has no arrests. When he talks to people, he doesn’t talk about gangs or drugs. He doesn’t drink. He’s a car guy. It’s all about cars.”
“He’s basically a good kid, but unfortunately he lives in an area where there’s been significant gang violence and probably [in a case of] The wrong person was shot,” the NYPD official added.
Montrose was a “pacifist” and a “beautiful soul” who only went out before dawn to give rides to friends, his sister, Joanna Montrose, 32, told the Post in a phone interview. .
“He was just who he was,” Joanna said. “He rarely said no to anyone. I’ve known him since he was a baby, and I don’t think he ever said, ‘No, I’m not going to do that.’ He always wanted to help people. So of course if someone did a favor or asked him to do something, he would just do it. ”
Joanna, from New Jersey, was barely able to speak in her sleep when her mother gave her the heartbreaking news.
“I just heard the phone ringing,” she said. “Then my boyfriend said, ‘Who’s calling at this hour?'” When I picked up the phone, it was her, but she wouldn’t give me any details about what happened. She was like, she doesn’t know how to tell. She paused for a moment, and then she said, ‘He got shot,’ and that’s how I knew. ”
“I just woke up,” she said. “So I got out of bed and said to her boyfriend, ‘I have to go in there right now and see what happened to him.'”
Joanna said she never expected the outcome to be so tragic.
“I thought maybe it had been grazed somewhere or something,” she said.
Christian, the youngest of seven children, worked for the Avis rental car company and was scheduled to attend Lincoln Polytechnic Institute for an automotive technician program, his sister said.
“Obviously he didn’t have the opportunity to go there, but he loved cars so it was his desire,” Joanna said. “He wanted to work with cars. That was his passion.”
In his personal life, Christian was “peaceful” and “positive,” his sister said, with a heart that uplifted those inside and outside his family.
“The last time we talked, he texted me and told me he was always thankful for me, and that really warmed my heart,” Joanna said. “He was such a beautiful soul. Words cannot describe how simply a beautiful person he was.”
No arrests have been made in the senseless killing, but authorities determined the gunman’s car was stolen from the Bronx, Kenney said.
“[This] I believe he was clearly being followed while someone was looking for an operation around the block. They found this poor kid and shot him,” he added. “Completely innocent.”
The murdered boy’s sister expressed a similar opinion.
“He’s a very polite, very respectful person, and that’s what we want people to know,” Joanna said. “Because we want people to [say], “Oh, you know, they shot him for a reason and there’s more to the story.” But we don’t believe that. It wasn’t his fault. ”
“I don’t know how to express that he wasn’t that person,” she said. “That’s why this is such a shock to us, because no one expected it, not even him.”
