A 16-year-old Brooklyn football star was fatally shot in the chest inside a Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, New York public housing apartment on Monday evening in what prosecutors are calling a tragic accident involving friends who were passing around a loaded gun.
Ka’mardre Coleman died at NYC Health and Hospitals/South Brooklyn Health after the shooting at the Sheepshead Bay Houses on Avenue X around 5:55 p.m. on March 23, 2026. Another 16-year-old boy, whose mother is an NYPD officer, was arrested Tuesday afternoon and charged with manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, and criminal possession of a weapon.
The suspect allegedly brought a loaded black-and-pink gun to a fourth-floor apartment in a backpack, where he and several friends—including Coleman and other football teammates—passed the weapon around in a bedroom, loading and unloading ammunition. According to the defense attorney, the victim may have been recording TikTok videos and taking pictures with the gun when it discharged.
During Wednesday’s arraignment in the youth part of Brooklyn Supreme Court, Assistant District Attorney Robert Schwartz described how the defendant was reloading ammunition when the gun fired while pointed at Coleman’s chest.
After the shooting, the suspect attempted CPR on his friend before grabbing the gun and fleeing the building. Surveillance footage captured him leaving the scene, and he encountered a responding police officer but shrugged off questions about what had happened—an interaction recorded on the officer’s bodycam.
Police caught up with the teenage suspect the next day as he was getting into a family member’s car. Officers found his backpack in the vehicle, though the firearm has not been recovered.
Coleman’s mother, Shameka Bannister, 49, told the New York Daily News her son had said he was “running to a friend’s house right fast” before leaving their home in the Nostrand Houses, less than half a mile from where he was killed.
“My son’s birthday is Friday,” Bannister said. “He was going to be 17. He had his whole life in front of him. And now I have got to bury my baby.”
A standout player for the Sheepshead Bay Sharks, Coleman had aspirations of playing college football and dreamed of becoming a police officer. The team had a strong 2024 season, and according to the Daily News, won a city championship just months ago. His sister, Julani Bannister, described him as an inspiration to younger kids in the community.
Defense attorney Kenneth Montgomery argued at the arraignment that his client was a scared kid who had just witnessed the death of a teammate and friend. He pushed back against what he called a politically motivated prosecution, noting that the suspect had never been in trouble with the law.
Montgomery also suggested that the group’s fascination with guns reflected a broader societal problem, pointing out that the victim himself had been documenting the encounter on his phone.
Judge Adam Perlmutter ordered the teen held on $125,000 bond. The suspect’s name is being withheld because he is a minor.
Prosecutors said four young people were in the bedroom when the gun discharged, and an adult—the mother of the friends who lived in the apartment—may have been present elsewhere in the unit. After the shooting, everyone fled, leaving Coleman alone.
“Everybody in the apartment left,” Bannister said. “They left him.”
A neighbor who witnessed the suspect leaving through her door’s peephole said the teen walked out as if nothing had happened.
Coleman is at least the fifth teen to die from gun violence in New York City this year, according to Gothamist’s analysis of police reports. Last year, 25 teens died in shootings citywide.
The shooting occurred in the 61st Precinct, which covers Sheepshead Bay, Gravesend, and Manhattan Beach. According to NYPD data, homicides and shootings in the precinct are at roughly the same levels as this point last year. The precinct has recorded just one other shooting and no other homicides so far in 2026.
Coleman’s father, Codwell Coleman, called his son a “good kid” and a talented athlete. His mother described him as her “all-American” who excelled at both football and basketball.
Twelve votive candles shaped like the number 5—Coleman’s jersey number—now stand outside the Sheepshead Bay Houses, a quiet memorial to a young athlete whose life ended three days before his 17th birthday.