The slight 16-year-old gunman accused of killing a younger teen outside a Queens Dunkin Donuts was described in court as “diminutive” and suffering from both asthma and ADHD — but he still clearly knew the consequences of his actions, a Queens Criminal Court judge declared Saturday as he ordered the alleged triggerman held without bail.
“You admittedly had certain difficulties. But you don’t strike me as being an idiot,” Judge Eugene Bowen told the teen as his family wept openly in the gallery.
“At age 16, you can understand that certain decisions are extremely serious.”
The teen’s relatives were so grief-stricken that a court officer offered one of them a napkin to dab her red, wet eyes.
“Oh Jesus!” one whispered, aghast, when Assistant District Attorney Andres Sanchez said the teen was facing a murder charge and released new information about the cold-hearted killing.
The 16-year-old boy surrendered to cops at the 105th Precinct with his attorney Darren Fields on Friday for killing 13-year-old Sanjay Samuel. The Daily News is not releasing the teen’s name because of his age.
Sanjay was with classmates outside the Dunkin Donuts on Springfield and Linden Blvds. in Cambria Heights about 8:20 a.m. Monday when the killer approached them on a Razor scooter, police said. The suspect attends the Campus Magnet High School nearby the scene, police say.
Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News
Police investigate at the scene on Springfield and Linden Blvds. in Cambria Heights, Queens on Monday. (Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News)
The killer is caught on surveillance camera pulling a gun on the group, sending them scattering. He rolls away on his scooter but comes back a few minutes later and begins fighting with Sanjay, who was still in the donut shop parking lot.
ADA Sanchez said the attack was caught from multiple surveillance cameras and a dash cam of a motorist in the parking lot.
As he squared off against Sanjay, the teen gunman “pistol-whipped (his victim) multiple times striking him on the side of the head,” Sanchez said.
Sanjay feebly tried to punch his attacker, but “the defendant had the last blow,” the ADA said.
“(The shooter) struck him across the face a third time so hard that it turned the victim’s head exposing the back of his head,” he said. “(It gave the suspect) the opportunity to step back, point, aim and shoot the young man in the back of the head leading him to collapse.”
The killing, Sanchez said “was committed in the presence of the whole world watching,” noting the spot where it occurred. “It was committed at one of the busiest intersections in Cambria Heights.”
At the time of the shooting, people were moving “to and from work” and “students were going to and from school,” the prosecutor said.
Courtesy of Theophilus Samuel
Sanjay Samuel, 13, was fatally shot on Monday. (Courtesy of Theophilus Samuel)
NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said Sanjay and his friends knew the teen shooter.
“(They) appear to be aware of the kid and have had interactions with him in the past,” Kenny said Thursday.
During his argument with Sanjay and his friends, one teen screamed out that the suspect was “gonna die,” he said.
The teen shooter ran off and never returned home, prosecutors said. While on the lam, he cut his hair short so he wouldn’t be recognized, prosecutors said.
But he had tossed his sweatshirt to a good Samaritan who had tried to get him to surrender, police and prosecutors said. He also discarded a black backpack with shark teeth on it that contained his school schedule, allowing cops to identify him.
Sanjay died of his wounds after being in a coma for two days. The 13-year-old boy remained on a respirator as his relatives prepare to donate his organs.
The teen gunman is facing second-degree murder and weapons possession charges. He’s facing 25 years to life in prison if convicted.
“What should have been another day for school, turned deadly when the defendant pulled out a gun and fired into the 13-year-old victim’s head,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said Saturday. “This decision not only took the young victim’s life but now has severely altered the defendant’s future.”
The bloodshed, she said, “is an example of the senseless gun violence that endangers public safety and takes the lives of too many of our children.”
The teen, dressed in a blue hooded sweatshirt and jeans and wearing a blue surgical mask, returned Judge Bowen’s gaze when addressed, but said nothing in court.
Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News
Police investigate at the scene on Monday. (Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News)
Fields called the shooting “a tragic situation” and asked Judge Bowen for leniency
“(My client) is currently diagnosed with ADHD. He’s on medication for that, your honor, and he has severe asthma,” Fields said. “He’s had a lot of difficult circumstances in his life, not to say that this is an acknowledgement or an admission.”
Judge Bowen wasn’t moved by Fields’ plea.
“Your attorney referred to you as a 16-year-old, diminutive young man,” Bowen told the teen. “Sometimes a diminutive young man decides to invite himself into an adult world.”
Those “very serious choices,” he added, have “very serious consequences.”
After the brief arraignment hearing, Fields said both his client and the teen’s family regrets what happened.
“Nobody wanted this situation. It should just play out in court and hopefully everything works out for all sides,” he said. “Unfortunately, we can’t bring back the young man, but we feel for (his family).”
The shooter identified himself on social media as being affiliated with the Bloods. Sanjay also identified himself as a gang member online and on his Instagram page wrote posts about SSM, a Bloods set known as “Sex, Money, Murder,” Kenny said.
Sanjay’s father, Theophilus Samuel, disputed allegations that his son was in a gang. Over the summer, Sanjay was staying in Connecticut with his uncle and was on a strict schedule once school started up.
“I have no kind of suspicion of anything like that,” he said about his son’s alleged gang affiliations.
Originally Published: September 27, 2025 at 2:23 PM EDT
