Tyreke Borel, a 17-year-old Black male, had a conversation with his mother, who urged him to be safe before he left his Brooklyn home to attend the annual J'Ouvert celebration on September 5, 2016. A native of Trinidad, he had moved to New York four years prior and was studying to become a car mechanic. His mother described him as a "lovely child who wanted to enjoy the Labor Day."
In the pre-dawn hours of the festival, at approximately 3:50 a.m., Tyreke was sitting alone on a park bench
near the corner of Empire Boulevard and Flatbush Avenue. It was here that gunfire erupted, and a bullet struck the teenager in the chest. Police who responded to a 911 call found him with the severe wound. He was rushed to Kings County Hospital, but the injury proved fatal, and he was pronounced dead. Police do not believe that Tyreke was the intended target of the shooting. A 72-year-old woman was also shot in the arm during the same incident but was listed in stable condition.
In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, tributes from friends and family flooded Tyreke's Facebook page, expressing shock and grief over his sudden death. He was one of two people fatally shot that night in separate incidents near the J'Ouvert parade route. A 22-year-old St. John's University student, Tiarah Poyau, was killed a short time after Tyreke in a nearby shooting. While an arrest was made and a suspect was eventually convicted in connection with Poyau's death, the investigation into Tyreke Borel's murder has not yielded any arrests. As of early 2017, nearly six months after his death, no suspects had been publicly identified, and the case remained unsolved. His mother expressed frustration with the lack of progress in the investigation, stating that when she would call the 71st Precinct for updates, she would often be met with an answering machine.
