Teen accused in savage mass stomping of girl is shot dead, police sources say

A teenager accused of taking part in a savage mass stomping of 15-year-old girl in Brooklyn in March was shot dead Tuesday, the New York Post reported, citing law enforcement sources.

Tyquan Howard, 16, was shot about 1 p.m. in front of a building on St. Johns Place near Rochester Avenue and died hours later at a hospital, police told the paper.

It's not clear what was behind the shooting, and no arrests had been made as of early Wednesday, law enforcement officials added to the Post.

Sources told the paper Howard was arrested and charged with robbery and gang assault in connection with the March 5 mass attack on the girl that was caught on surveillance video. The circumstances of his release were not clear, the Post noted.

What's the background?

The girl apparently was knocked to the sidewalk by one male before others joined the attack and began stomping her:

Image source: YouTube screenshot

At least a dozen suspects surrounded the victim, kicking and punching her.

After the attack one of them pulled her Air Jordans right off her feet:

Image source: YouTube screenshot

One witness said the victim was "bleeding like crazy" on the sidewalk.

15-year-old girl attacked, robbed by gang of teen boys in Brooklyn I ABC7youtu.be

In the aftermath five males between the ages of 14 and 17 were arrested and charged with robbery and gang assault. A mother of one suspect told the New York Daily News she made her 14-year-old son turn himself into police.

"When I saw the video I literally wanted to kill him with my own hands. I was very, very pissed off," Donna Howell told the paper. "He didn't want to go at first and I said, 'No you're going to go, you're going to turn yourself in.'"

Judge calls sneaker-stealing suspect 'youthful offender' rather than 'defendant'

A 14-year-old accused by prosecutors of stealing the girl's sneakers was referred to as a "youthful offender" by Judge Ruth Shillingford rather than "defendant" during his arraignment, the Daily News said in a separate story. It isn't clear if the teen in question is the same one whose mother made him turn himself in to cops.

None of the suspects knew the victim, lawyers said during the arraignment hearings, the paper reported.

The Brooklyn DA requested $10,000 bail for all 11 suspects arrested at the time, but that was rejected — instead after-school curfews were given to them, the Daily News said.

The paper also talked to the victim's neighbors who described her as a quiet girl who lives with her mother and sister.

"She doesn't get in trouble, she doesn't deserve that," 13-year-old neighbor Jacob Black told the Daily News. "She's a basketball player, that's all she does."

"She goes to school and comes home. She's quiet," a next-door neighbor who declined to share her name added to paper. "Those were animals. I can't see how those young boys did that to her."