Photo Courtesy Of Shayma Roman/ Facebook
A 17-year-old female basketball star, Shayma Roman, was fatally struck by a stray bullet after leaving her grandmother’s apartment in Brooklyn.
According to The New York Post, Shayma was hit by a stray bullet while standing outside of 1225 Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights on Sept. 28. Police said the teen was hanging out with several others on the sidewalk when two male gunmen approached them and opened fire. Authorities added that she was struck in the arm and the face in front of her older sister, Tayma Roman.
Shayma was later rushed to Brownsville’s Brookdale Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
“[Tayma] saw it happen… she was right there,” her older brother Shakem Roman told the Post on Sept. 29. “I don’t know how my sister is going to take this. She’s over by grandmother’s or over by the friends. She can’t come home. She can’t come back home. They shared a room. She can’t…[they were] like, together like, if one leaves out of the house, the other one will go with her. They was always together, 24/7. People always called them twins because they wear the same clothes.”
Police said Shayma was an unintended target in the tragic shooting and that when they arrived, they found her face down in a pool of blood on the pavement. She lived about a mile away on St. Mark’s Avenue in Crown Heights.
The 17-year-old was reportedly a member of the Lady Wolves basketball team at Brooklyn Democracy Academy in Brownsville.
Friends have mourned her death online.
“Friends are the family that you get to choose. 🤍🤍,” Mia Rios wrote. “This one definitely hit home. 😔 I’m heartbroken. 😔 My baby is not ok. She keeps looking at their pictures, reading their messages, checking her location, not sleeping, crying constantly. 🥺 This is so unreal. 😔 Shy’s family is not ok. A chunk of love was viciously taken from them. 😢💔 This is not ok. 😢😢 How can someone be so senseless, so careless, so hateful. 😔 Such an innocent soul. 😢 Shayma “Shy” Roman (pronounced Shy•E•Muh). Gone wayyyy too soon. 😔 S.I.P beautiful. 😢😔🕊
October 30, 2004 – September 28, 2022.”
The suspects have since been identified, but no arrests were made, authorities said.