A 27-year-old man fatally shot outside a Brooklyn NYCHA development had just dropped off his 9-year-old daughter for a hair appointment when he was gunned down, his family said.
Jahshyim Whitfield was shot in the torso outside the Lafayette Gardens public housing complex near Dekalb and Kent Aves. in Clinton Hill about 9:20 p.m. Saturday, cops said. The shooting happened just steps from the spot of a triple shooting last year in which one man died.
“He took his daughter to get her hair done, he had dropped her off and as he waiting for her hair to get finished that’s when the incident happened,” the victim’s aunt told the Daily News.
“He was just killing time, waiting for his daughter’s hair to get done,” the aunt said.
“He had two daughters who he loved,” she added. In addition to the 9-year-old, Whitfield had a 7-year-old daughter.
Whitfield was both a doting dad and an avid music fan, relatives said.
“He loved music and his family,” his aunt said.
“He listened to different music. He loved older music — he had a old soul, he would just listen to whatever he was in the mood,” she added. “He could switch up and wake up listening to Chief Keef to the Isley Brothers.”
Courtesy of family
Jahshyim Whitfield with his daughter. (Courtesy of family)
Whitfield had just turned 27 last month, his grandmother Evelyn said.
“I helped raised him, helped with his schoolwork,” she said. “He called me Mom. He didn’t call me grandma; he called me ma.”
For his birthday in June, Evelyn recounted how she cooked Whitfield a special meal. “I cooked him a nice meal of oxtail, cabbage and yellow rice and cornbread,” she said.
Food was another passion of his, according to his grandmother.
“He can cook, too, certain things he can cook,” she said. “His dad taught him how to cook,” adding, “He loved fried rice and chicken.”
Whitfield was riding a CitiBike when he was shot, according to his aunt. She learned about his death from a friend of the victim.
“His friend called us,” the aunt said. “I was trying get in touch with the sister. I have no idea who would do that to him, and I don’t think no one knows.”
“It’s a lot of shootings going on,” she added.
In 2016, when he was 18, Whitfield was one of 25 people charged in connection with eight separate shootings over territory in a Brooklyn gang war in which six people were wounded, and a 19-year-old man alleged to be a member of a rival gang died, according to the Brooklyn district attorney’s office.
It was not immediately clear how the case resolved. Whitfield never served time in state prison, according to state prison records.
Whitfield worked security for various bars and nightclubs to help support his family, his aunt said.
Medics rushed Whitfield to New York-Presbyterian Hospital Brooklyn Methodist, but he could not be saved.
No arrests have been made.
The shooting took place outside the same building where three men were shot, one fatally, on Sept. 30.
Shaquille Davis, 32, was texting his 8-year-old son, his family told the Daily News, when he was shot in the head in a playground outside the housing complex. A 26-year-old man shot in the abdomen and shoulder and a 33-year-old man shot in the chest survived that shooting.
Originally Published: July 13, 2025 at 9:13 AM EDT
