In the spring of 2014, the cycle of violence that had relentlessly plagued a Queens family claimed another young life. On March 30, 17-year-old Khalil Bowlin was fatally shot in a drive-by shooting in the South Jamaica neighborhood. The male teenager was with an 18-year-old friend on Lakewood Avenue when a blue, two-door car approached, and a passenger opened fire. Bowlin was struck in the chest and succumbed to his injuries by the time he reached Jamaica Hospital.
His friend was shot in the leg but survived.
The death of Khalil Bowlin was a devastating echo of past tragedies for his family. He was the fourth member of his family to be killed by gun violence in a span of just three years. The series of violent losses had a profound and noticeable effect on the young man. His mother, Barbie Bowlin, shared that her son had become withdrawn and deeply affected by the murders of his father, uncle, and particularly his 14-year-old cousin, D'aja Robinson. Robinson had been killed by a stray bullet while riding a city bus the previous summer. His mother recalled him crying like a baby after his cousin's death, a raw display of grief from a teenager who had otherwise built a shell around himself.
In the aftermath of so much loss, Khalil's life had taken a different path. Once a student at the Campus Magnet complex, he was reportedly working towards his GED with aspirations of joining the U.S. Navy. However, his mother also acknowledged that her son had become involved in a lifestyle that she suspected was connected to gangs, believing it was a response to the violence that had shattered his world. Following his death, the search for his assailants began, but those responsible for the fatal shooting were never apprehended and brought to justice.
