Heartbroken Brooklyn Mom Mourns Son Fatally Shot by Cousin in Tragic Accident
Tiffany Grant, 35, is grieving the loss of her "beautiful" 14-year-old son, Jasai Guy, who was fatally shot by his 12-year-old cousin. Grant tearfully recounted to The Post how her son's clean clothes remain folded on his bed, waiting for him to return.
“My baby was everything,” Grant said at a growing memorial outside her mother’s home on Dean Street in Crown Heights, where Jasai spent part of his youth. "No one is perfect, but he was very close to it — maybe that 1% of it was when he didn’t want to do the dishes,” she added with a bittersweet chuckle. “His books are at home in his room on a bookshelf,’’ she said sadly. “His clothes that I washed are on his bed waiting for him to put away.”
Authorities released grim details about the incident. Jasai was shot through the heart with an illegal, sawed-off shotgun. The tragedy unfolded on Sunday morning at the Brownsville home of Jasai’s paternal grandfather, where his firefighter father also resides. The boys were playing when the shotgun, believed to belong to the father, went off, hitting Jasai in the chest.
The 12-year-old cousin, in a heartbreaking admission, told police, “I shot my cousin by accident, I don’t want him to die.’’ He explained that he was trying to take the gun away from Jasai when it discharged, according to NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny. The police found blood in the apartment hallway and the altered shotgun on the bed. “Both the barrel and stock were cut off to make it smaller. It’s a Mossberg model 518 12-gauge shotgun,” Kenny said. Doctors described Jasai’s injuries as “a gaping chest wound and a hole in the victim’s heart.”
Both the 12-year-old and Jasai’s father have obtained lawyers and are not speaking further with authorities. Grant, who lost an adult brother five years ago, was supposed to visit his grave on the anniversary of his death but is now preparing to bury her son instead.
“My boy was so beautiful,” Grant said, describing Jasai as a bright, creative kid who loved drawing comics and playing basketball. “He was the ‘Cool guy Sai,’ that’s what they called him.” She fondly recalled Jasai’s excitement about getting contact lenses to replace his frequently broken glasses. “He got tired of us yelling at him about breaking his glasses. So he eventually was like, ‘OK, Mom, I’m ready to try contacts,’” she said.
At the sidewalk memorial, Grant left heartfelt messages around pictures of Jasai. “Mommy loves you with my all and everything. I couldn’t hold you in my arms forever. But now I can hold you in my heart forever. I love you, my first born, my king, my forever love,” she wrote.
Jasai’s little sister, Kennedy, 7, is struggling with her brother's death. “Her main thing is she calls herself ‘the comfort helper.’ So I asked her what does ‘the comfort helper’ do, and she says they look around for people that’s crying and give them hugs,” Grant shared.
The 12-year-old cousin, who has not been publicly identified, has been charged with criminally negligent homicide and criminal possession of a weapon. He appeared in Brooklyn Family Court on Monday and was released to his mother pending his next hearing.
Jasai’s father was in Costa Rica at the time of the shooting, while the grandfather was at home sleeping. NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Public Information Tarik Sheppard said it is unclear whether an adult will be charged over the gun. NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry expressed deep empathy for the family, calling such cases “one of my biggest nightmares.”
Grant wants the world to remember who her son was beyond the tragic circumstances of his death. “If the world needs to know anything about my son, I don’t want the last thing to be that he was shot dead,” she said. “It’s beside that, it’s who he was. And I’m going to tell that story.”
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