Is boy, 14, the youngest person ever to be killed by an NYPD cop? Shooting came after teen 'pointed gun at officers while chasing down gang rival'

Shaaliver Douse, 14, was chasing down man and shooting at him when he was encountered by NYPD officers, police say

Teen raised his gun at police and was shot in the jaw

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly says he cannot think of a younger person shot and killed by officers in the city

Boy's family denies gang involvement and says Shaaliver never had a gun

Teen was previously arrested for shooting a 15-year-old gang rival but was never prosecuted



Killed: Shaaliver Douse, 14, was killed by police early Sunday. Officers say he pointed a gun at them

The shooting of a 14-year-old boy Sunday by a rookie police officer has shocked New York City. The police commissioner concedes that the teen may be the youngest person ever killed by the NYPD.

Despite the tragic young age of Shaaliver Douse, Ray Kelly was quick to defend the white 26-year-old officer, who just graduated from the police academy last month.

Kelly said the teen had fired multiple rounds and was chasing someone through the streets of the Bronx about 3am Sunday.



When two officers confronted him, he refused to drop the pistol and pointed it at them, the Commissioner said at a press conference Sunday evening.



The officer fired a single round from his 9mm service pistol, striking Shaaliver in the jaw and killing him.



Police sources told the New York Times that they believe Shaaliver was pursuing a gang rival. Detectives believe the incident was also related to the shooting of a 15-year-old boy in May, for which Shaaliver was arrested and charged with attempted murder.



The NYPD released a picture of an Astra 9mm semiautomatic pistol covered in the boy's blood - in an effort to prove that he was armed at the time he was killed.



The department also produced s urveillance video that purportedly shows Shaaliver in a white t-shirt running toward a man standing in front of a bodega and opening fire.



A second video shows Shaaliver chasing the target around the corner. It was there that the teen was confronted by police.

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This bloody 9mm handgun (pictured here) was involved recovered from an armed 14-year-old Bronx boy who was killed by a rookie NYPD officer

The NYPD says this video shows Shaaliver shooting at the man in the blue t-shirt and then chasing after him

Police say this teen in a white T-shirt is Shaaliver. He can be seen running after his target on the streets in the Bronx

When Kelly was asked whether the Bronx teen was the youngest person ever killed by a New York police officer, he hesitated.



'I don't recall any other at this juncture. There may have been, I just don't recall,' he said, according to the New York Post .



Despite this show of evidence, his family has denied that the 14-year-old boy was involved in gangs and said the NYPD is trying to whitewash the killing.

'They're making it all up. There was no gun. It’s all a cover-up. It’s what the police do. They kill us and cover it up,' the boy's aunt Quwana Barcene told the Post.



'It’s not fair. It was my sister’s only child. You shouldn’t have to bury your child. My beautiful nephew got shot in the head. A mother of one now has to bury her only child.'

NYPD top brass are standing by the officer in the shooting - but are treading carefully.



'Regardless of the circumstances, this is a crushing blow to any parent,' Kelly said.



VIDEO: NYPD says footage shows Saaliver Douse chasing man on Bronx street before police killed him

The crime scene (pictured here) was located in the Bronx where in the early hours of the morning two uniformed police officers found boy firing at a fleeing man

In the aftermath of the shooting NYPD officers carefully case the scene for evidence where two rookie cops shot an armed 14-year-old boy

Ms Barcene likened the shooting to the death of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida - a case that sparked outrage across the country.



'Him, Trayvon Martin, it’s never going to end.' she said. 'A child. Fourteen years old. Fourteen years old. Gone. Shot in the head. By police.'

Many in the black community remain highly skeptical of the NYPD over the shooting death in march of 16-year-old Kimani Gray in Brooklyn. Police said the teen also had a gun, though the shooting drew marches across the borough in protest of the killing.



Sunday was not Shaaliver's first run-in with police. In May, he was arrested and charged with attempted murder after he shot and wounded a 15-year-old boy in the neighborhood. Police say they used surveillance video from that that incident to identify Shaaliver among a group of teens running from the scene.



However, those charges were later deferred and Shaaliver was released back onto the streets when the 15-year-old victim couldn't testify against his shooter. Police believe that shooting was gang-related, as well.



The fatal shooting occurred in the Bronx at the volatile corner of Courtlandt Avenue & 151st Street

The shooting occurred right near this Bronx convenience store where police discovered Douse firing shots at a fleeing man

Police said the altercation Sunday started when Shaaliver, who lives in a nearby housing project with his mother, opened fire on a man standing outside a bodega in the crime-ridden Melrose section of the Bronx.



The target fled, running down the street, with Shaaliver chasing after him.



Two officers, age 26 and 27, who had jointed the NYPD in January and graduated from the academy last month, were in the area as part of an Operation Impact deployment of police in the neighborhood.



The uniformed officers identified themselves as police and ordered Shaaliver to drop his weapon when they confronted him, authorities said.

Instead of dropping the weapon, police say, he raised it and pointed at the officers.

One of the officers opened fire shot him in the left side of the jaw, police said. The teenager was pronounced dead at the scene.

'(The officers) literally were half a block away from where the (first) shots were being fired,' a police source told The New York Daily News . 'They ran to the corner and there it was.'

The man Shaaliver was firing at is still at large.

Run-in with the law: Police say this picture shows Shaaliver running away after he shot a 15-year-old boy in the Bronx in May. He was later released after prosecutors cited lack of evidence