'They took my soul from me': Gang member gets 30 years for mistaken identity killing of 14-year-old boy playing basketball at a park

Sean Brown was sentenced to 30 years in prison for the death of Aamir Griffin, inset. (Courtroom screenshot from Eyewitness News ABC7NY/YouTube; Victim screenshot from Fox 5 New York/YouTube)

A gang member learned his fate this week for shooting and killing a 14-year-old boy who he mistook for a rival during a gang war as the boy played basketball at a New York playground.

Sean Brown, 21, was sentenced to 30 years in prison for the death of Aamir Griffin. Brown pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the first degree, conspiracy in the second degree, and criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree, prosecutors said in a news release . The manslaughter and weapon sentences are to be served consecutively, with the 30 years to be followed by five years of post-release supervision, officials said.

“They took my soul from me,” Aamir’s mother, Shanequa Griffin, said before the sentencing, New York’s CBS affiliate WCBS reported. “I haven’t slept for five years. I’m tired. I just want this to be over with. My family and I miss him. At least you’re still here for your family, and hopefully, if you’re ever in the streets again, you’ll make better decisions.”

Kim Walston doted on her grandson.

“Amir used to visit me every day, as I reside just around the corner from him,” she said, Spectrum News NY1 reported. “On that fateful day Amir was taken away from us, [it was] the one day he didn’t come to visit me.”

“Amir touched the lives of so many, giving himself without any hesitation,” she added, the outlet reported. “He was also a promising basketball player with dreams of making it to the NBA. However, all those dreams were shattered by Mr. Brown’s decision to take that fatal shot.”

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said in a statement that no child should feel unsafe going to a park and no parent should ever have to bury a child.

“Gang gun violence has caused too much harm in our communities,” she said. “We will continue to do everything in our power to get illegal guns off our streets in order to prevent another family from suffering such a tragedy.”

Brown fired three shots from a .380-caliber handgun at Aamir as he played basketball at the Baisley Park Houses on Oct. 26, 2019, at 8 p.m. A bullet penetrated his chest and pierced his lungs.

Brown was one of 33 gangsters charged in March 2023 in a 151-count indictment alleging conspiracy, murder, and other crimes during a gang war fueled by social media and rap videos. Gangs on both sides bragged about the violence, taunted rivals, and disrespected dead family and friends, prosecutors said.

The gang war started over a knifing in April 2019 involving two Money World gang members who punched and kicked a rival Trap Stars gang member, then slashed him across the nape of the neck, causing severe scarring and deformity, prosecutors said.

It escalated with Aamir’s murder. Tensions raged with more than 22 shootings between the gangs, one of them fatal.

As Law&Crime reported, the indictment capped a nearly three-year investigation into gun and gang violence in and around the Baisley Park Houses in one of the area’s largest gang takedowns.

The post ‘They took my soul from me’: Gang member gets 30 years for mistaken identity killing of 14-year-old boy playing basketball at a park first appeared on Law & Crime .