Aspiring teen dancer fatally shot in apparent accident while hanging in Brooklyn building: ‘Loved by so many’
A popular teenage girl, believed to have been accidentally shot to death at an impromptu party inside a vacant Brooklyn apartment, was remembered Tuesday as an aspiring dancer with a sharp wit and a bright future.
Raelynn Cameron, 17, took a single bullet to her chest Monday night inside the building on Eldert Lane near Dumont Ave. in East New York, with police responding to a 911 call at 10:55 p.m., authorities said — just 10 days before her birthday.
“Couldn’t ask for a better little sister,” her older brother Ralik Smith, 25, told the Daily News. “She was loved by so many ... She definitely was the princess, she knew she was spoiled. She was my everything.”
Smith said Raelynn, known to her family as “Rae Rae,” was hanging out Monday with a cousin who appeared to be involved in events leading up to the fatal shooting on the sixth floor.
“I just want the truth,” he said. “Know the absolute story. Know how it came to an end. Truth and justice.”
Raelynn had been staying at her brother’s home when the cousin encouraged her to come to a party at a squatter’s place, said the victim’s mother, Cassandra Adams. The victim was still wearing her pajamas at the time, according to the grieving mom, but the cousin said that would be okay.
There, the situation got out of control. The cousin stepped out and left Raelynn in a room with several males, according to Adams.
Around that time, a family member received a text message from Raelynn requesting help, Adams said.
But it became too late for anyone to intervene. While details remain unclear, police sources said the teen was mortally struck by a bullet accidentally fired by one of the people at the squatter’s pad.
Police sources said Raelynn told first responders she was shot accidentally and refused to identify the shooter to police as she was rushed away in an ambulance. But her mom believes she was already unconscious and might even have been dead by the time first responders arrived.
Raelynn was declared deceased at Brookdale University Hospital.
“My heart is broken. I will never look at the world the same way again,” Adams told The News. “I can’t see the spark that was there ... It’s grey and it’s dark now.”
Police followed a blood trail from an elevator in the building to the sixth-floor apartment where Raelynn’s cousin’s friends were found and taken to the 75th Precinct stationhouse for questioning, sources said.
Adams said the victim had been dragged from the squatter’s and placed in an elevator. She was deposited onto a black running carpet — now stained with blood — in the ground-floor lobby, where a security guard called 911.
No arrests were immediately made — and the gun used in the mysterious shooting has not been recovered by police.
The victim’s on-and-off boyfriend of two years also cited the victim’s clashes with the so-called cousin, saying the two girls were close until a recent falling out after Cameron invited the other girl to move in with her family.
“I’ve been telling her to stay away,” said the boyfriend, who first met Cameron in 2017. “She had animosity with (Cameron). Sometimes hatred toward Rae ... I said it a lot of times. She would never full-on listen.”
The victim, a resident of Far Rockaway in Queens, graduated this past June from the Brooklyn High School of the Arts and had just started business classes at CUNY.
“She was an honest and blunt person,” said friend Cierra Samuel Thompson, 18. “Very open. She was also sweet and she was a caring person, always about her school work and getting stuff done. She would never fake her love for you. Do anything to make anyone smile.”
Local dance team director Keanna Henry was among those devastated by the loss of a teen with a bright future.
“She’s so funny, she’s so caring,” said Henry. “She did not deserve at all what happened to her. She is such an entertainer, she lights up the room ... She definitely was one of a kind. She’s a person who was going to put a smile on your face no matter what you were going through.”
The victim’s dance teacher recalled their last get-together 12 days ago, with Cameron excited about her coming 18th birthday.
“She knew how to crack jokes at any moment,” said instructor Brandon Vega. “This is hard to come up with words right now and think of everything. She was more than just all these little words.”
