Just after dawn on October 31, 2015, Jarrel Worrell, a 27-year-old man from Brooklyn, was shot in the back on East 108th Street in Canarsie. The gunfire turned a quiet Halloween morning into chaos, with emergency calls bringing police and medics rushing to the scene as neighbors looked on, trying to make sense of what had happened in those first bewildering minutes after the shots.
Investigators treated the killing as a targeted shooting, working the block for evidence and canvassing for witnesses who might have seen the shooter’s approach or escape. In the immediate aftermath, authorities reported no arrests, and there was no public identification of a suspect or suspects in the early reporting.
In the days that followed, the shock in the neighborhood hardened into grief and anger. Community members pointed to the killing as proof that violence had become too common, gathering for a vigil and rally near the Breukelen Houses to demand change, more outreach, and more options for young people so the next morning in Canarsie wouldn’t begin with another homicide scene.
