Shooting death of boy may have been a case of mistaken identity

Standing about a block from the Brewerytown corner where 14-year-old Kareem Haynes was shot Tuesday in what may have been a case of mistaken identity, his grief-stricken parents had nearly identical thoughts.

"Stop the killing," the boy's father, Curtis Haynes, said today.

"Stop the killing," echoed the victim's mother, Barbara Martin. "And put down the guns."

Kareem was shot in broad daylight at a busy intersection of Cecil B. Moore Avenue, just around the corner from his home, by a gunman who rode up on a bike.

His parents said detectives told them that the gunman may have mistaken Kareem for someone he had tussled with earlier. Police said yesterday they had not confirmed the circumstances of the shooting, and no suspect information has been released.

Kareem's mother said he had just walked a girl up to the bus stop. Moments later, the girl ran back to the house.

"She was like, 'Barbara, your son was shot,' " Martin said. "By the time I got there, they were taking him to the hospital."

A patrol officer rushed Kareem to Hahnemann University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead about 6:15 p.m. from a gunshot to the chest.

"It's getting so bad out there, innocent kids getting killed," Curtis Haynes said. "You can't even let your child walk down to the bus stop."

No one in Kareem's family expected him to fall victim to violence, least of all in the late afternoon on the first day of school. Kareem would have been a freshman this year at Roxborough High School.

He did not attend school Tuesday because he did not have his uniform, Curtis Haynes said. A sister was supposed to take him Tuesday evening to get his school clothes.

He was shot about 4:45 p.m., well after school let out for the day.

His parents said the gunman went by the nickname "Gotti."

"That was the first name that was said [around the neighborhood] and that's the name that keeps being said," Martin said.

Kareem was an average student and a regular kid, his parents said, interested in normal things for a boy his age: sports, his mountain bike, his dirt bike.

He was typical in every way, his father said.

"No child is bad," Curtis Haynes said. "They're all mischievious."

Kareem came from a large family of five brothers and sisters - including a set of older and younger twins - and he was being mentored by neighborhood pastor.

"He was just a teenage child who did teenage things," said Rev. Anthony Bowman of the New Hope Revival Center. "He wasn't no thug. He wasn't in the game."

Bowman started taking Kareem to church and to the movies after getting to know him through his sister-in-law, a friend of Martin's.

Kareem's mother said she had seen her son maturing lately, starting to take on more responsibility. He had been running chores for the elderly, and he helped a neighbor this summer with a home construction project for a little money.

She said "everyone" had gotten to know her son since they moved to their North 28th Street home six years ago.

"When we first got here, he was young and he gave some people a hard way to go," Martin said. "But as he got older, he started to change."

At the spot where Kareem was killed, a makeshift memorial - the sad ritual for nearly all city homicide victims - included two broken-down Utz potato chip boxes, which were erected for people to scrawl their thoughts. On one, Kareem's birth and death dates were listed as "sunrise" and "sunset."

At Kareem's home, about a dozen relatives gathered yesterday afternoon on the sidewalk under their own memorial of candles and stuffed animals.

Two school photos of Kareem rested on the window sills. Under the windows, the family had taped a poem written by one of Kareem's classmates and addressed "to someone so special."

"You were like a best friend to everyone," the unsigned author wrote. "And that's what makes you so special."