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Harlem community of murdered 15-year-old mourns as NYPD questions teen tied to incident
By
Brittany Kriegstein
Published Oct 8, 2026
Modified Oct 8, 2026
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Brittany Kriegstein Gothamist
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Brittany Kriegstein
Published Oct 8, 2026
Modified Oct 8, 2026
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The 15-year-old boy who was gunned down at a Harlem public housing complex Wednesday night was a regular at the local community center — where he participated in exactly the kinds of programs meant to keep teens off the streets, according to staff.
Iesha Lewis, director of the Cornerstone Community Center at the Martin Luther King Jr. Towers, said Jihad Pack enjoyed coming in — especially to work in the recording studio. He was normally there on Wednesday evenings, she added.
But around 6:20 p.m. Wednesday, Pack was shot in the stomach barely half a block from the center on West 115th Street and Lenox Avenue, according to the NYPD.
“We’re still trying to understand why this community is going through this,” Lewis said, adding that Pack was a “wonderful young man” who was a good big brother to his younger sisters.
Police responded to the scene when they received a ShotSpotter alert for gunfire, and rushed the teen to Mount Sinai Morningside Hospital, where he died. A 57-year-old man who was also shot in the right hand was hospitalized in stable condition. NYPD officials said Thursday that they were questioning another teenager in connection with the incident, but had not yet officially arrested anyone.
“ This affects everybody, our whole community,” said Lakeba Reece, a neighbor who was sitting outside Pack’s building as a group of teens lit memorial candles for him. “Nobody wins in this situation. We all lose.”
Fellow King Towers resident Jessie Pacheco said she’s worried about the safety of her own 17-year-old son, who was friends with Pack.
“It's hard, you know? Them seeing this, them having to see their friends die. It's so crazy in the streets nowadays. It's scary,” she said. “I don't want [my son] out here. I want him to light the candles and I know he wants to be with his friends, but I want him upstairs.”
King Towers is one out of 100 New York City Housing Authority complexes with a built-in Cornerstone Center — a community space that offers programming for young people and adults all year round. The King Towers facility is run by SCAN-Harbor, a nonprofit that works to prevent gun violence across Harlem and the Bronx.
Lewis said the strength of the King Towers after-school program makes it even harder to understand how this kind of violence persists in the neighborhood.
“It’s beyond programming,” she said. “We have to figure out what these kids really want. We’re getting murdered year after year here.”
Among possible solutions, she said the city has to figure out how to give teens financial opportunities and incentives beyond just the Summer Youth program, a city-sponsored initiative for summer job placements for teens.
“We need more stipends,” she said.
But there are other issues at King Towers, Lewis said, including the pervasive scaffolding that engulfs many of the paths and entryways around the complex and obscures who is coming and going.
“The light needs to shine back in there,” she said. “Environment is everything.”
NYCHA did not immediately respond to an inquiry about the scaffolding or general safety at the complex.
Pack is the 18th teenager to die of gun violence in New York City so far this year, according to Gothamist’s compilation of police reports.
Though police data shows that shooting incidents and murders have both decreased compared to this time last year in the 28th Precinct, which encompasses much of central Harlem, King Towers was already the site of another fatal shooting earlier this year.
In July, 35-year-old Kinu Rochford, a professional basketball player, was gunned down at a tournament at the complex's basketball court.
Pacheco said she always tries to host her son and his friends in her apartment to keep him inside. Whenever he’s out, she urges him to “use your gut feeling.”
“They're too young. That baby is gone. He hasn't even started his life,” she said of Pack. “It could've been anybody's kid.”
This story has been updated with additional information.
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public safety
Brittany Kriegstein
Brittany Kriegstein covers all breaking news around New York City, with a focus on crime and gun violence. Got a tip? Email Brittany at [email protected].
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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