Second Teen Arrested for Senseless SoHo Slaying of 16-year-old
Another arrest was made in the case of victim Makhi Brown, the 16-year-old Brooklynite and student athlete at a SoHo charter school.
| 20 Jun 2024 | 12:20
Celebrating the life & legacy of shooting victim Makhi Jahard Buchanan Brown (
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Makhi Brown at left with other members of the Team GodSquad basketball team. (
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Plaza outside Broome Street Academy shortly after the May 17 murder of Makhi Brown. (
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A second teenager has been taken into custody for the May 7 killing of Broome Street Academy student Makhi Brown. On that day, police responded to a call at approximately 2:27 p.m that a male was shot opposite 233 Spring Street.
The second arrest was made on Wednesday, June 12
At 9:25 a.m. that day, NYPD arrested and charged a 16-year-old male with the second-degree murder of 16-year-old Makhi Brown. The suspect’s name has been withheld from reports as he is still a minor.
On May 17, NYPD arrested Henry Thomas for second-degree murder in Harlem, while stating the second shooter was still at large.
Witnesses to the slaying say they saw two people flee the scene on a single Citi Bike, with one sitting illegally in the basket. One of those was identified as Thomas, who shot the victim twice.
Makhi Brown was a resident of East Flatbush, Brooklyn, and commuted an hour on a train each day to attend Broome Street Academy, between Varick Street and 6th Avenue. Friends and family said that Brown aspired to play college basketball.
Brown was leaving school for the day when he witnessed a fight break out between two of his female classmates. Just a block from campus, several teens watched as Brown reportedly stepped in as peacemaker.
According to witnesses, Brown tried to break up the fracas, and while doing so, he was shot in the thigh and the head by the two hooded males on a Citi Bike. Brown was taken to Bellevue Hospital where was pronounced dead.
So far, the police have discovered no connection between the two alleged murderers and the female students.
Following the murder, a vigil was held outside of the Brown family’s Brooklyn home. Neighbors, friends and family gathered to pay their respects and bring awareness to gun violence.
Brown played on the GodSquad basketball team. The GodSquad is an East Flatbush-based non-profit group that tries to liaison between kids, clergy, the local community and NYPD’s 67th Precinct to reduce— and hopefully end—gun violence.
The organization called out Citi Bikes in an Instagram post memorializing Brown, pleading that the company “become more invested in the fight against gun violence by way of ‘Bike-bys’ in our city.”
“We look forward to any collaborative discussions with them to solve our community problem,” the group wrote on Instagram. The post provided a list of links to other Citi Bike-related shootings in greater NYC.
Neither Citi bike, nor any of the myriad pro-Citi Bike and pro e-bike advocacy groups in general have commented on the subject.
In East Flatbush, the community gathered to support Makhi Brown’s mom, who lost her only child just weeks before celebrating Mother’s Day.
In Manhattan, authorities say this is the first shooting this year for this precinct. There were no reported shootings in this neighborhood for 2023 either.