A teenager in New York killed an 11-year-old girl: mom tried to hide him from the police in a hotel

A 15-year-old teenager was riding a motorcycle and shot and killed an innocent 11-year-old girl from the Bronx. Police said they caught him on May 20 hiding with his mother in a hotel. Writes about it New York Post.

Matthew Godwin was arrested for the murder of Kaihara Tai, who was killed by a stray bullet on May 16th. The teenage shooter allegedly aimed at a 13-year-old boy, and hit the girl by accident. The 13-year-old boy was not hurt.

Officers took Godwin into custody at 02:00 on May 20 at a hotel in the Harding Park neighborhood of the Bronx, where the family had checked in the night before.

“Another tragedy here is that the shooter is also too young for this,” Bronx District Attorney Darsel Clarke said. “It's incomprehensible, but no longer unbelievable for what's going on in the Bronx. Unfortunately, Kihara was the second child in the Bronx to be killed in a shootout that a teenager started."

The teenager was charged with murder, manslaughter and two counts of illegal possession of a weapon. The police said they are still looking for the moped driver, 18-year-old Omar Bojang.

Detectives chief James Essig said Godwin's mother could face charges as well, as officers "suggest" the family was on the run from law enforcement.

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Police said Godwin and Bojang were chasing the 13-year-old on Fox Street. The guy first tried to hide from them in an apartment building and a nursing home, and then ran south along Westchester Avenue.

At that moment, Godwin opened fire, but instead of hitting his intended target, he killed Kaihara, who was visiting a nail salon.

The 13-year-old and his parents were in contact with police, officials said, but it's unclear what the motive for the shooting was.

It is also not known how the police learned that Godwin, with his mother and her three other children, were staying at the hotel. Law enforcement officials said they forced the door after no one answered them when they knocked. Godwin and his mother were in the room with the rest of the children.

The detained teenager had not previously been arrested, but was the victim of a January 6 shooting, police said. According to the NYPD, in October 2019, when the guy was 12 years old, he was severely beaten.

Oscar Garcia, who manages the Bronx apartment building where Godwin lives with his parents, said "every day there are problems" in the last couple of years since the family moved here.

“Eight or ten guys come to their apartment every day,” he clarified. They are between 14 and 19 years old. They come on scooters. I'm sure it's a gang."

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He called the man accused of murder a "problem child".

“There is always graffiti around their apartment,” he remarked. “I think the guy does it.”

But neighbor Cassandra Soto called the parents "good people" and said her 14-year-old son is Godwin's best friend.

“I assure you, Matthew didn’t do it,” she says. “I guarantee you they will find out that this is a case of mistaken identity.”

“He wasn’t in a gang,” Soto assured. He will never hurt another child. He's not like that."

According to a neighbor, Godwin has three older brothers, one of whom works as a security guard.

“We are still being held hostage by the gun industry, which prioritizes profit over public safety,” said New York City Mayor Eric Adams. “People are being robbed of their entire childhood.”

Police have turned to the public for help in finding Bojang, who was previously wanted for possible involvement in a series of robberies in the Bronx, in which criminals lured victims using social media and robbed them.

Bojang was arrested in June 2020 after being shot twice in the leg.