A devoted dad shot dead outside the Brooklyn NYCHA complex where he lived died in the middle of a text exchange with his 8-year-old son.
Shaquille Davis was shot in the head in a playground outside the Lafayette Gardens Houses in Clinton Hill about 5:20 p.m. Monday. The shooting left two other men, one of them Shaquille’s best friend, critically wounded.
Davis, 32, lived with his mother, who raced to the playground near Dekalb and Kent Aves. after getting a call from a neighbor who witnessed the shooting.
“I walked as fast as I can,” Denise Davis, 58, told the Daily News Tuesday, breaking down in tears. “I saw my son lying there. Just to see him, I knew he was gone. He was already gone.”
“This hurt my family hard,” she added. “I can’t hold my head up. We’re praying for him”
Shaquille died at the scene. The other two victims, a 26-year-old man shot in the abdomen and shoulder and a 33-year-old man shot in the chest, were rushed to New York-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, where they remained in critical condition Tuesday. No arrest have been made.
Shaquille was texting his son — shortly after picking him up from an after-school program and dropping him off with the boy’s grandmother — when shots rang out.
“He just texted his son, his son texted him back. When (Jayce) didn’t get no response back…” Denise said, her voice trailing off as she broke down in tears. “His son is distraught right now. They were just together.”
Shaquille was a construction worker nicknamed “Oody,” short for “Foody” for his voracious appetite as a child. He helped coach Jayce’s Brooklyn Legendz youth football team, relatives said.
“They were tight, from day one,” Denise said. “They did everything together. His son is into football so (Shaquille) was right there helping coach the football team.”
Shaquille was hanging out with a childhood friend, known in the neighborhood by the nickname “Hood,” when they both were shot along with a third man. Five shell casings were recovered by police after the gunman and an accomplice ran off.
Cops have not determined who the killer was aiming for when he opened fire but Denise believes her son and his friend were unintended targets.
“He was just talking to his friend, the one who got shot with him,” Denise said. “That was his best friend.”
Police said Shaquille had been arrested six times for crimes including grand larceny and criminal possession of a forged instrument. On one occasion, he was charged with resisting arrest.
“He was well loved,” Denise said. “Everybody knew him. He wasn’t a street kid, running with gangs or anything like that. He was a good kid.”
“He’s good,” the relieved friend said. “He’s out of surgery. He opened his eyes.”
