19-year-old arrested and charged in connection with fatal SoHo shooting

Catalina Gonella

Published May 17, 2024

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Deb Cohn-Orbach/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Catalina Gonella

Published May 17, 2024

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A 19-year-old man was arrested and charged with murder in connection with the fatal shooting of 16-year-old Mahki Brown in Manhattan earlier this month.

Police said Henry Thomas shot Brown in the head and thigh at around 2:30 p.m. on May 7 at an outdoor courtyard near the Dominic Hotel on Spring Street in SoHo. Information about Thomas' attorneys was not yet available.

Brown was a devoted student and basketball player at Broome Street Academy Charter High School, located just blocks from where he died.

At a press briefing on Friday, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told reporters that Brown was one of around 30 teenagers who were in the courtyard on May 7, and that he tried to intervene after an argument broke out. The altercation was a continuation of a brawl that had taken place between two girls just a day earlier.

“This [previous] fight is over a stare down, meaning they pass each other in the hallway during school hours, stared at each other and decided they weren't happy with each other, so that they were gonna fight after school,” Kenny said. “They have the fight, the fight is broken up, everybody goes their separate ways.”

Kenny said both girls, as well as a third, planned to fight again on the very next day, May 7. That’s what brought the group to the courtyard on Spring Street, where they got into an argument.

One girl’s brother tried to intervene in an attempt to stop it, according to Kenny, and the last girl to get involved also decided to give her brother a call. Two people showed up on a Citibike shortly afterward – with one of them riding in the basket – and got into a dispute with the group, which is when Brown decided to step in, according to Kenny.

“Our victim is playing a peacemaker here,” Kenny said. “He steps in to try to de-escalate the situation.”

That was when one of the people on the bike drew a gun and fired it three times, striking Brown once in the head and once in the thigh, according to police, who added that both fled the scene afterward. Brown was rushed to Bellevue Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Kenny said police believe the gunmen may have had gang ties because “some gang wordage was used.” He added that Brown isn’t believed to have been directly known to those fighting.

“From speaking to the mother, he's the kind of guy that would have stepped in to help anybody,” Kenny said.

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public safety

manhattan