Ka’Mardre Coleman, 16, had just gotten a haircut when he received a call Monday evening inviting him to hang out at the nearby home of a high school football teammate. He told his mother he would be back soon and headed out.
There were three other boys at the apartment, part of the Sheepshead Bay public housing complex in Brooklyn. One had brought a pink and black gun in his backpack, and the boys went into a bedroom and began playing with the weapon.
They passed it back and forth, unloading and reloading it.
It cycled back to the boy who brought it. As he reloaded the gun, it went off, according to prosecutors. The bullet struck Ka’Mardre in the chest.
In the frantic moments that followed, the boy who brought the gun pressed his friend’s chest to try to stop the bleeding, then fled with the weapon, prosecutors said. When the police arrived at the apartment, Ka’Mardre was unconscious. He was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.
On Wednesday, the boy, 16, who brought the gun was arraigned on second-degree manslaughter charges. Prosecutors asked the judge to set bail at $250,000, but the boy’s lawyer asked for a lower amount, arguing that the child did not have a record and his mother was a New York City police officer. The judge set bail at $125,000, saying that “there was no intentional act here.” The boy’s family posted bail on Thursday, said Kenneth Montgomery, his lawyer.
Mr. Montgomery said that as the teenagers passed around the firearm, the mother of the boy who lived there was home. “It was a bunch of kids, and they were doing something that they shouldn’t have done,” the lawyer said.
Friday would have been Ka’Mardre’s 17th birthday. Instead, there will be a candlelight vigil at his high school, and a court hearing to determine whether the other boy will continue to be prosecuted as an adult or if he will be charged as a juvenile in family court.
Shootings involving minors have risen across the city, even as the overall number of shootings has declined to modern-day lows. In 2025, 14 percent of shooting victims and 18 percent of shooters were under the age of 18, according to police data. Ka’Mardre’s death came just weeks after a 14-year-old boy, Johary Cantave, was fatally shot in the head inside a car in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.
By Wednesday, mourners outside Ka’Mardre’s building in the Nostrand Houses, just a few blocks from where he was shot, had arrayed dozens of candles and filled posters with remembrances. His sister, Julani Bannister, 21, said that her brother had been looking forward to turning 17. “So excited, because it means he’s growing up,” she said.
Ka’Mardre was a sophomore at the United Charter High School for Advanced Math & Science III near his home. He was a standout on both the basketball team and the football team, where he played safety and wide receiver, his sister said.
Last fall, Ka’Mardre and the boy played varsity football for the Frank J. Macchiarola Educational Complex, which contains the charter school, Ms. Bannister said. The team, the Sharks, won its division in the Public School Athletic League playoff, trouncing James Madison High School, 46-6, in the final.
Ms. Bannister said her brother had dreamed of going to Syracuse University, where he wanted to be a student athlete and go on to a career in sports management.
A cousin, Jassiah Calhoun, 19, said Ka’Mardre had often played on the basketball courts at the Nostrand Houses and that he had been a role model to some of the younger children. “He was always joyful, always happy,” Mr. Calhoun said.
Justice Derrick-Joseph, 11, speaking with his mother by his side outside Ka’Mardre’s building, said Ka’Mardre had “treated me like I was a sibling to him.” Justice met the older boy at an after-school program.
“If I was upset he would calm me down and talk to me about any issues I had in school,” Justice said.
He said he felt sad. “I cried,” he said.
Beneath a photo of Ka’Mardre, Justice wrote, “Love you.”
Maia Coleman and Ed Shanahan contributed reporting.
Andy Newman has reported from the New York region for The Times for more than 30 years.
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