One of New York City's top female high school basketball stars was hunted down and fatally shot in her Harlem building by an assailant who apparently mistook her for a male rival because of her athletic build and the hoodie over her head, sources told the New York Post.
Murry Bergtraum High School standout guard Tayshana “Chicken” Murphy, 18, had been hanging out with her mother, brother and pals outside the Grant Houses public housing project where they live on the southern edge of Harlem at around 4:15 a.m. Sunday when two men approached, law enforcement sources and relatives said.
Both men were from the Manhattanville projects a few blocks north, and one of them had been assaulted at the Grant Houses earlier in the night — an incident that had nothing to do with Murphy — during one of several run-ins between the projects’ rival factions, the sources said.
Suddenly, one of the men yelled, “That’s him! That’s him!” indicating the solidly built, 5-foot-7 Murphy, who had her hood up, the sources said.
The duo then whipped out at least one handgun, prompting the terrified Murphy to scream, "I’m not with that!" and start running.
The panicked athlete ran into the building and made it up to the fourth floor before the gunman caught up to her and shot her three times, in the chest, hip and hand.
“Thirty minutes before, she was dancing and smiling with her friends, talking about the new school year and team,” Tephanie Holston, Murphy’s mother, told the newspaper.
"That’s my baby," she wept, kissing Murphy’s body as it was loaded into the medical examiner’s van.
Police are reviewing video from the building that caught some of the violence, sources said.
The killing of Murphy — nicknamed "Chicken" because of her bow legs — shattered relatives and friends.
“I just curled up like a baby on the floor and just screamed and yelled,” said a distraught Kasim Alston, Murphy’s godfather and former coach. “I lost a child. Chicken is like my second daughter.”
Murphy had transferred into Bergtraum last year but missed her junior season while recovering from a leg injury. Coach Ed Grezinsky called her death “a terrible tragedy.”
“This kid had so much to live for,” he said of Murphy, who was being recruited by top colleges.
