Nearly three weeks after an 18-year-old was shot and killed near a party in Queens, his family is still without answers and is pleading for anyone with information to come forward. The young man, Josiah King, was gunned down in a case that has left his relatives and coaches heartbroken and searching for a reason, and that so far has produced no arrests.
The shooting happened in the early hours of June 28. According to accounts from his family, King was struck by a bullet along 106th Avenue, near the Van Wyck in the Jamaica section of Queens, and left in the street after the gunfire. What should have been an ordinary summer night out ended with a teenager fatally wounded on a city street, and with a community left to grapple with yet another young life cut short.
One of the most painful details, for those who loved him, is how close he came to never being there at all. His family says King had been heading to a graduation party but never even made it inside, having been turned away at the door because the party was too crowded. It was as he was leaving, according to the account, that the shots rang out, a cruel twist that has fueled the sense among relatives that he was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, a possibility police have also raised.
Those who knew King painted a portrait of a bright and promising young man. He was described as a witty and thoughtful soul, a member of the class of 2027 who loved basketball and dreamed of playing. His high school coach, Kevin Reed, recalled a kid who had once told him he would play for him one day, a promise that came true, and said that by rights King should still be on the court rather than being mourned.
For his mother, Alicia, the loss has been all-consuming. She described a grief that leaves her turning the killing over in her mind, imagining scenario after scenario as she struggles to understand what happened to her son. Losing a child, she said, drives you to distraction, and she made clear that what she needed most was not vengeance but simply the truth about how and why her son was killed.
Notably, the family's appeal has been striking for its lack of rage. King's mother said she was not angry with whoever pulled the trigger, saying she understood teenagers and how situations can spiral, but she urged that person to own up to what they had done. That plea, aimed directly at the shooter, was paired with a broader call to the neighborhood: that someone out there saw something or knows something, and that the family needs them to speak.
Weeks on, the investigation remains open and no one has been taken into custody. King's coach urged the community not to get in its own way, insisting that someone must have witnessed the shooting, and the family has asked that anyone with information contact the New York Police Department's Crime Stoppers tip line, where tips can be left anonymously. For now, the people who loved Josiah King are left to hold onto his memory, and to the hope that the answers they are seeking will finally come.