Nov 20, 2009 6:13 am US/Eastern
Baby-Faced Teen Shooting Suspect Showed Promise
Carvett Gentles, 16, Arrested In Shooting Of 15-Year-Old Vada Vasquez, Who Remains In Medically-Induced Coma
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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Carvett Gentles, 16, is led away by police on Nov. 18, 2009. He's believed to be the gunman in the shooting of 15-year-old Vada Vasquez in the Bronx.
CBS
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Vada Vasquez, 15, was shot in the head by a stray bullet while walking home from school in the Bronx on Nov. 16, 2009.
CBS
When Carvett Gentles, the baby-faced 16-year-old accused of attempted murder, appeared on television on Wednesday night, Grace Toro felt her heart sink.
"I felt like I wanted to cry, as a mother. Like I say, my heart is bleeding for him," she told CBS 2.
Toro lives downstairs from Gentles' family on Jefferson Place in Crotona Park East.
"He seemed to me like he was not a troubled kid at all. I'm surprised," she said.
A number of residents said the same thing: Gentles seemed like a decent kid who showed promise by enrolling in the Bronx Leadership Academy. Students at the high school are admitted based on their leadership and academic potential. Gentles got in, but reportedly quickly lost interest in the program and skipped school many days this year.
"He used to be outside, like hanging around with his friends and stuff," one neighbor told CBS 2, adding that Gentles started spending time with a tough crowd. That crowd included the four older men who allegedly gave him a .40 caliber handgun and told him – because he didn't have a criminal record – he had to do the shooting.
Michael Arterberry, director of the Youth Voices Center, said it's a kind of "perverted mentoring."
"The older guys are able to manipulate the situation and get these younger people to do things because they feel as if that's being loyal," he said.
There is gang graffiti in the hall near Gentles' apartment, and cops said the suspects are connected to the Bloods street gang.
But Gentles' cousin, Davon Loveless, denies that.
"They trying to make it seem like it gang related. Ain't nothing like this gang related," he said.
If Gentles' mother has any insight, she didn't share it, refusing to answer questions as she returned home from the arraignment. Her baby-faced son was deemed to dangerous to release on bail.
One of the two victims in the shooting, 15-year-old Vada Vasquez, struck in the head by a stray bullet while walking home from school, remains on life support.
Gentles' mother did released a statement, calling the shootings "tragic," and saying, "We pray daily for young Vada Vasquez and Tyrone Creighton and hope they will make a speedy recovery."
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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