Mayor Eric Adams got choked up Thursday while discussing the shooting murder of an 18-year-old rapper gunned down in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn last weekend.
The mayor’s emotional speech about the life and death of Jayquan McKenley aka Chii Wvttz came as Adams plans to meeting with the city’s top civil rights activists including Al Sharpton and state NAACP President Hazel Dukes to pitch his plan to crack down on gun violence, The Post has learned.
The mayor, during a 14-minute speech, said McKenley is a textbook example of a young man who fell through the cracks in a negligent city.
“The story of Jayquan breaks my heart. His story tests my spirit. We must do better for people like him,” said a tearful Adams, who went silent for nearly 20 seconds near the end of his speech.
He apologized to his parents and said the city agencies must stop the “betrayal” to thousands of youths like him.
McKenley grew up in the South Bronx and shifted from homeless shelter to homeless shelter with his family from the age of 5. He had a cognitive disability in school and was absent for 250 days in high school with no intervention.
The young rapper was arrested multiple times and was incarcerated before he was gunned down.
While mentioning the city must do more to aid at-risk youths like Jayquan early on, Adams also focused on “intervention” with his plan to sideline criminals and get guns off the streets. At one point, Adams posted a picture of his ID card when he attended Bayside HS.
Sharpton, who on Wednesday complained about brazen thefts at stores that leave many basic goods under lock and key, said he spoke with the mayor about arranging a meeting, which could take place within the next week.
He said the Urban League and the ACLU would also join the meeting with the NAACP and the National Action Network he heads.
Adams’ move to woo the civil rights leaders comes as he faces resistance from some fellow Democrats in the state Legislature over his bid to toughen the bail law and prosecute gun-wielding teenagers who are now exempt from being charged in criminal court.
“A lot of the shopkeepers of the stores getting looted are black and Latino. We want them to stay in business,” Sharpton said on Thursday.
“But at the same time, we don’t want to go back to clogging the court and jails with people charged with and convicted of petty crimes.”
Dukes said she has known Adams for decades from when he was a police officer and state senator to his days as Brooklyn borough president. She said City Hall has also reached out to her to discuss public safety and is has an open mind about solutions.
“I know Eric Adams very well. He has been in the trenches. He is an inclusive person,” she said.
The longtime state NAACP boss lives in Harlem just two blocks from the 32nd Precinct in Harlem and said local residents were devastated by the shooting murder of two of its cops — Jason Rivera and Wilbert Mora — while responding to a domestic violence dispute.
“People in our communities want safety, too,” Dukes said.
“A bullet has no name on it, no race or gender. People all over are worried about safety.”
Dukes wasn’t ready to endorse any particulars but she said it’s clear that something has to be done.
Asked about engaging civil rights activists, City Hall spokesman Fabien Levy said, “Mayor Adams has been abundantly clear that public safety is his top priority. He’s working every day to remove guns from our streets, protect our communities, and create a safe, prosperous, and just city for all New Yorkers.
“The mayor is willing to speak with anyone and everyone to move forward with his Blueprint to End Gun Violence. He looks forward to sitting down with Dr. Dukes, someone he’s known for years, to discuss how they can work collaboratively to protect New Yorkers from gun violence.”
Adams’ plan includes rolling out a revamped undercover NYPD anti-gun unit called “Neighborhood Safety Teams,” and a controversial call for the state Legislature to allow judges “to take dangerousness into account” when setting bail or deciding to jail someone pending trial.
He also wants Albany to tweak the “Raise the Age” law that upped the age of criminal responsibility for juveniles from 16 years to 18 for non-violent crimes. Adams complained that many 16- and 17 year-olds are now getting arrested for gun crimes and are being treated as juveniles in Family Court instead of adults.
The bail law, in particular, led to a fiery confrontation between Adams and Assemblywoman Latrice Walker (D-Brooklyn) when he testified virtually during a state legislative hearing on Gov. Kathy Hochul’s $216 billion budget plan.
It’s not the first time she challenged people for pushing changes to tighten the bail law.
During an Assembly floor debate in April of 2020, she accused supporters of amending the bail law as doing the devil’s bidding.
“You know they say the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was to prove to the world that he didn’t exist,” she said, calling the rollback “shameful.”