Two Charged in Fatal Shooting of 4-Year-Old in the Bronx

By WENDY RUDERMAN

On Sunday afternoon, Courtney Kelly had brought together residents of a housing complex in the Bronx and others for a basketball tournament in honor of his younger sister, who was murdered in July 2010.

He also, according to the authorities, brought a gun, and by the end of the night a 4-year-old boy lay dead from a gunshot to the head as a panicked crowd scattered amid a shootout.

On Wednesday, Mr. Kelly, 26, who remains in a hospital recovering from a gunshot wound to the stomach, was charged with criminal gun possession, the police said. Investigators also arrested and charged a 17-year-old, Rondell Pinkerton, with murder and gun possession in connection with the shootout that killed the 4-year-old, Lloyd Morgan, who was playing in a playground near the Forest Houses with other children just after 9:30 p.m. Sunday. Another man, Christopher Forte, 21, was shot in the arm as he walked n ear the bleachers. Mr. Forte, who had surgery on his arm Tuesday afternoon, was at St. Barnabas Hospital in stable condition on Wednesday.

The boy's mother, Shianne Norman, said her son loved basketball and dreamed of playing in the National Basketball Association. “I really feel like this is senseless,'' Ms. Norman said through anguished sobs on Monday. “My son was 4 years old. He just turned 4 this May that just passed. He was going to school in September. He hasn't gotten to live his life yet.”

Investigators were still piecing together the details of what happened on Sunday night, and it is unclear what role Mr. Kelly played in the shootout. Additional charges against Mr. Kelly and others could be filed, the police said. At the time of the shooting, Mr. Kelly, who detectives believe is a member of the Bloods gang, was on parole for robbery. He had violated his parole and there was a warrant out for his arrest, the police said.

Investigators found s hell casings from three different caliber weapons near the playground and the basketball court where the tournament was held, and they believe at least two gunmen, possibly more, were exchanging fire.

Mr. Kelly, whose age the police had mistakenly listed as 27, organized the basketball tournament to honor his sister, Troynisha Harris, 18, who was stabbed to death in July 2010 as she sat outside the Forest Houses on East 165th Street.

Sabrina Kelly, the mother of Courtney Kelly and Troynisha Harris, attended a Monday night rally, where she, along with politicians and community leaders, called for an end to the violence in the neighborhood.

“You've got to take these guns off the street,” Ms. Kelly said during the rally.