By Karen Frantz
Two men were shot to death in the borough Saturday, one a Far Rockaway teenager who was gunned down outside his best friend’s party and the other a 31-year-old man who was found dead inside his Rosedale home, police and family of the teen victim said.
Two suspects have been apprehended in connection with 17-year-old Xavier Granville’s murder, police said. Dashawn Deverow, 21, of 78-00 Shore Front Pkwy., and Jamane Yarbrough, 16, of 54-09 Almeda Ave., both from the Rockaways, were arrested and charged with Granville’s murder, according to the NYPD.
Deverow was also charged with criminal possession of a weapon after he was allegedly picked up with a loaded firearm, police said. A spokeswoman for the NYPD said the charges did not specify whether the gun was an AK-47. Shell casings from an AK-47 and a .45-caliber pistol were found at the crime scene, police said.
Granville was found dead in front of Beach 15th Street and Heyson Road in Far Rockaway, after assailants in ski masks shot the 17-year-old in the head, police and family of the victim said. He had been attending a birthday party for his best friend, relatives said.
One witness to the shooting described a chaotic scene, with a large group of teenagers running outside the Oceanview II apartments, possibly engaged in a fist fight, he said.
The witness said he was in his apartment across the street and was sitting by his window smoking a cigarette when the teenagers spilled out of the apartment complex. The shots rang out as the teens were fighting, he said.
“It was boom, boom, boom, boom, boom,” he said, saying he crouched low to avoid getting hit by a stray bullet.
“When I put my head in the window again, the guy was down already,” he said.
Family had gathered at Granville’s apartment Saturday afternoon, where his devastated mother described him as a good young man who could make anybody laugh and dreamed of becoming a marine biologist.
“When he smiled he lit up the whole room,” Shikara Granville said.
Shikara learned of the shooting from her upstairs neighbors. She said when she arrived at the crime scene, police told her to go to Jamaica Hospital, although Granville had been taken to St. John’s Episcopal. She eventually found the correct hospital and identified her son’s body.
“He was my baby, he was my child,” she said. “Nobody’s child deserved to get killed like my son got killed.”
In Rosedale Saturday, 31-year-old Corey Rankine was found shot to death in his home, at 147-41 Hook Creek Blvd. Police responding to a 911 call found him shot in the torso and emergency responders pronounced him dead at the scene.
Police said they were searching for a male suspect in connection with the murder. They described him as black between the ages of 20 and 30, about 5 feet 7 inches and 160 pounds. He was wearing a black hat and a black and white wool coat, police said.
The home was cordoned off by emergency tape Sunday, with dark smudges marking the white front door.
Neighbors said an unknown number of people moved into the home only a month or two ago and no one seemed to know them.
“I didn’t get a chance to meet them,” one neighbor said. “I just knew they drove nice cars.”
Reach reporter Karen Frantz by e-mail at kfrantz@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4538.
