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Video posted by ex-Mayor Eric Adams shows 15-year-old being beaten, fatally shot in Queens playground

Julian Roberts-Grmela and Colin Mixson, New York Daily News on

Published in News & Features

NEW YORK — Former New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Friday posted alarming video to social media showing teenager Jaden Pierre being beaten and fatally shot at point-blank range in a Queens playground.

The 15-year-old victim was shot in the chest inside the Nautilus Playground at Roy Wilkins Park near Baisley and Merrick Blvds. in South Jamaica around 6:16 p.m. on Thursday, according to police.

The cellphone video Adams posted to X shows Pierre being beaten by a group of teens who have him cornered, with his back against a fence near the park’s comfort station. At least three rival teens can be seen repeatedly punching and kicking Pierre as he holds his hands over his head, trying to ward off the blows, the video shows.

At one point, one of his attackers grab’s Pierre’s hoodie and throws him to the ground. He quickly regains his feet but the teens continue to pummel Pierre until gunfire rings out. The youth suddenly drops to the ground as the crowd scatters.

The New York Police Department released images Friday of the suspected shooter, including one pulled from the cellphone footage released by the former mayor.

“A 15-year-old kid was beaten and shot to death at a Southeast Queens playground yesterday. And somehow this isn’t the top story,” Adams said in his post. “Credit to AG Letitia James & BP Richards for speaking up. Where is everyone else, including @NYCMayor Mamdani?”

Cops believe Pierre went to the park to participate in a water-balloon fight planned for earlier that day.

Medics rushed the boy to Jamaica Hospital, but he couldn’t be saved.

“It’s such a tragic situation when any child is lost to gun violence, especially Jayden,” the victim’s aunt, who did not give her name, told The New York Daily News at the hospital. “He was a wonderful child. A very caring and loving boy.”

 

Multiple witnesses told the Daily News they heard gunfire near the basketball courts inside the playground.

“I heard a shot go off,” said AJ, 19, who was playing basketball when the shooting occurred. “I came running to see if he was all right, and I saw a kid dead on the ground. He was lying there dead.”

“I knew him from playing basketball,” AJ added. “He was a good kid.”

The boy fell near the park’s comfort station, witnesses said.

“I saw the commotion,” a man, who was at a laundromat across the street when the shots were fired, told the Daily News. “The police were just arriving. I ran over to make sure my kids were all right, and I saw the kid lying there by the bathroom. He wasn’t moving. He was dead.”

The teen’s murder stunned parkgoers.

“That’s really sad,” Herman Belvin, 60, said at Roy Wilkins Park. “When my kids were younger, I used to bring them to this park. We need the cops to be present. It’s a very active park.”

Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.


©2026 New York Daily News. Visit nydailynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 

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