Raphael Ward, 16, was shot and killed on Friday night (January 4) on New York City’s Lower East Side. The police believe Ward was murdered for his Marmot winter coat.
Ward, who was from the Baruch Houses, was shot in the chest at the corner of Columbia St. and Rivington St. at 9:10 p.m, reports the New York Daily News.
Allegedly, a group of teens had approached Ward shortly before and eyed the Marmot jacket he was wearing. “Someone was trying to take his coat, but didn’t get it,” a police source told the NYDN.
Ward may have known his attackers and reportedly foretold of his demise via a Facebook post earlier in the day that read “I’m dead,” according to his friends.
Reports the New York Post.
The gunman, described as 5-foot-6, 120 to 140 pounds, was wearing a dark wool hat and a ski mask when he walked up to Ward in the 32 degree cold and shot him just minutes after the altercation over the jacket, police sources said.
After he was shot, a dying Ward — still wearing his bloodied parka — stumbled across the street to the Tearedhan convenience store and told workers there he had been approached by a group of people who had wanted his jacket, police sources said.
A Marmot park can go anywhere from $400 to $600. Ward is survived by his mother and 7-year-old little brother. Although the LES neighborhood has been gentrifying for years, violence still plagues the neighborhood.
At the moment there are no suspects in Ward’s murder.
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Photo: Facebook
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