The NYPD’s revelation that a pair of suspects in the stray-bullet slaying of 1-year-old Davell Gardner are already behind bars on unrelated homicides came as a shock to most — but none more than the tragic tot’s family.
“This is the first we are hearing of this!” said visibly stunned grandma Samantha Gardner mouth agape, eyes wide — on Thursday at her Brownsville, Brooklyn home. “None of the family heard.”
NYPD Chief of Detectives Rodney Harrison told reporters Wednesday that two men recently arrested in a pair of unrelated homicides are considered suspects in the death of Gardner.
Just shy of his second birthday, Gardner was killed by a stray bullet to the stomach at a July family barbecue outside a Bedford-Stuyvesant playground.
Three adult men were also shot, but survived.
Even among a summer stained by levels of gunplay not seen in decades, Gardner’s killing horrified the city.
Harrison did not identify the suspects by name, and said that they are yet to be charged in Gardner’s death because “the district attorney wants a little more” evidence.
“We haven’t heard anything. I don’t know what to say,” said Samantha Gardner, 51. “I’m at a loss for words.”
Davell’s mom, Felicia Gordon, was even more direct in her remarks when reached by phone.
“No one has spoke to me,” said Gordon, who has seldom spoken in public about the night her son died before her eyes. “I would like for the NYPD to get in contact with me.”
The Post has previously reported that alleged Hoolie Blood gangbanger Deshawn Austin, 25, was arrested for a March homicide and suspected in Gardner’s death.
Police on Wednesday declined to confirm or deny whether Austin was one of the two suspects Harrison was referring to, citing an ongoing investigation.
The Brooklyn District Attorney’s office declined comment.
“It’s good that they caught someone. … I want justice for my grandson,” said Samantha Gardner. “If they’re the ones, the ones that killed my grandson, they can rot in jail for the rest of their lives. They can go and put them under the jail cell!”
Still, she said that even the harshest punishment can’t undo the tragedy.
“I don’t care how much time they get it ain’t bringing my grandson back,” she said. “This is something we have to live with every day for the rest of our lives.”
