The distraught mother of slain 12-year-old Kade Lewin issued a heartbreaking plea on Monday for his killers to be caught after he was shot dead in a parked minivan in Brooklyn last week.
“I’m asking for justice for Kade,” his tearful mom, Suzette, told reporters as she clutched a photo of her little boy outside her Flatlands home.
“Please come forward. Somebody say something.”
Mayor Eric Adams, who stood beside Kade’s mother holding a pair of the slain boy’s sneakers, earlier decried the shooting, asking: “Whose child is next?”
Kade was shot in the head while he was eating in a car with his two cousins at East 56th Street and Linden Boulevard in East Flatbush on Thursday night.
His 20-year-old cousin, Jenna Ellis, was in the driver’s seat and suffered gunshot wounds to her jaw and stomach. She is still recovering in hospital.
“I’m standing here today and I should not be. This gun violence must be stopped. Too (many) innocent people are being killed,” Jenna’s mother, Jennifer Jones Ellis, said as she held a portrait of her daughter.
“My nephew is gone. My daughter is lying in the hospital blaming herself.”
She added: “No one knows who is going to be next … We just don’t want it to be a next Kade. We don’t want it to be another Jenna.”
Mayor Adams apologized to both families and vowed to catch those responsible.
“We’re so sorry. Those who took their lives will be found,” Hizzoner said, adding that he would personally contribute to help with Kade’s burial costs.
Police believe Kade and his older cousin were struck in what may have been a case of mistaken identity, NYPD sources said.
Two cars, including a black Infiniti sedan, fled the scene after the shooting, sources and witnesses said. One source said detectives were eyeing the possibility that the thugs in both vehicles had been firing at each other.
No arrests have been made yet.
“Your NYPD is doing everything it can … to deter and prevent and apprehend those responsible but we need your help,” NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell said.
“Kade’s mother needs your help Jenna’s mother needs your help.”
Kade’s younger cousin, 8-year-old Kylie Thompson, was sitting in the backseat when the shooting unfolded, but was uninjured.
Kade’s brutal murder is the latest in a spate of gun violence involving children that has rocked the city.
Just last month, a 3-year-old was hit by gunfire outside of a Brownsville, Brooklyn day care center and a 7-year-old was grazed by a stray bullet in Coney Island. An 11-month-old girl was also hit by a stray bullet in The Bronx in January.