Editor’s Note: The following story is an updated and extended version of the one published in our latest print edition.

 

Dozens of friends and family members came together to mourn the loss of Kyle Styles Lovera Lockett, 21, at Granby’s Funeral Service, Inc. in Wakefield on Friday, Nov. 11. As reported, the young man was fatally shot when police intervened in an altercation between Lockett and a 29-year-old man, later named as Ajamu Demmerle, in front of a deli on the corner of Gun Hill Road and Hull Avenue in Norwood on Thursday, Nov. 3.

 

As reported, police said members of the Queens Warrant Squad, who were in an unmarked police vehicle in front of 330 Gun Hill Road on the day of the fatal shooting, were investigating an unrelated incident when, at 11.30 a.m., after double-parking his White Lexus on the corner, Demmerle entered the deli and allegedly engaged in a violent struggle with Lockett, who was already inside.

 

Police said, during the struggle, caught on video, Lockett allegedly had a gun while Demmerle was allegedly stabbing Lockett with a knife. A police official said during a subsequent press conference on the day of the shooting, “The male with the knife [Demmerle] flees, pursued by the male with the gun [Lockett]. As he [Lockett] exists the bodega, he [allegedly] fires at the male [Demmerle] at point-blank range into the white Lexus.”

The police official said one sergeant and two detectives from the Queens Violence Detectives Squad, in plain clothes, then confronted Lockett and fired numerous times. They said Lockett was subsequently removed to Jacobi Medical Center and was pronounced deceased.

 

Eight days later, on Nov. 11, a police vehicle was observed parked opposite 4021 White Plains Road, where Lockett’s wake was being held. One mourner, who identified himself as Lockett’s uncle, told Norwood News the family wished to keep the service private and the service was soon closed to everyone waiting, after reaching capacity.

 

Referring to Lockett, Jessica Lugo from Norwood, who knew the 21-year-old, told Norwood News by phone on Nov. 15, “His mom was a hard worker, and he was always a respectful kid.” She added, “I mean kids are going to be kids but growing up, he was always a good kid. He was well adjusted, playing in the park with his friends. They all grew up together.”

Lugo recalled that one mourner at Lockett’s wake, which she attended, told her how Lockett had helped out in the local Norwood community, and that another person at the wake also told her how he had defended himself against a neighborhood bully.

 

“From what I know, he was always a good kid,” Lugo said. “He was never cursing or disrespectful, hitting people, or getting into violence. He was just a typical kid.” Asked if Lockett had kept up any hobbies, Lugo said, “He was into music. I definitely know he was into music, writing music and rhyming and stuff like that. When we were younger…playing, riding his bike, playing outside.”

 

Lugo later posted a video on Facebook that shows dozens of Lockett’s friends gathered after his wake along Decatur Avenue and East Gun Hill Road in Norwood recording a rap video in his memory. In reference to the video, Lugo said, “That was all of his friends. He was a young kid. Referring to the wake and funeral, she added that the service was huge. “It was packed with people,” she said.

 

She added that Lockett grew up on Hull Avenue and attended P.S. 94 and M.S. 20. She said, more recently he lived a short distance away from where he was shot in Norwood. She said friends attended the wake on White Plains Road and that later many had dinner at a nearby restaurant not far from where the tribute video was filmed.

 

A Go Fund Me page, shared on social media by Rose Bishop, had at one point raised $4,089 to cover the cost of Lockett’s funeral. It was made up of 106 donations with a goal of raising $10,000. The accompanying description read, “Kyle Lockett entered the gates of heaven and gained his wings too soon. He was a beloved son, brother, uncle and friend. This has been a shock to the family as well as the community.”

 

It continued, “Kyle, only 21 years old, had his whole life ahead of him. Kyle is gone but, in our sadness, we rejoice his life by keeping his memory alive. Since there was no warning [meant], the cost for his burial has weighed heavily on the family.” Sarah Lang, the Go Fund Me organizer of the page, wrote that Lockett’s mother, in her grief, had asked the community to pull together and donate so that her son could be laid to rest properly.

 

Meanwhile, according to court records, Demmerle was charged in July with resisting arrest and obstructing government administration. He now faces additional charges of attempted murder, assault, and criminal possession of a weapon, police said, and is being held on a $500,000 bond. He was due back in court on Nov. 16 and, again, on Nov. 18, to answer the resisting arrest charge.

 

On the day of the incident, Demmerle appears to have walked or ran, after being shot, seven blocks from the site of the incident as far as a barber shop located on East Gun Hill Road near the corner of Jerome Avenue. Later that day, Norwood News spoke to a local business owner in the area who had entered the barbershop, along with some others, around the same time as Demmerle did earlier that day. [The business owner does not own the barber shop but a nearby business.] We asked him if Demmerle explained to those in the barbershop what had happened to him, given his injuries.

 

Speaking in Spanish, the business owner replied, “No. Basically, he said he had been shot [around the ear] and that there was a group of young men looking for him to finish the job.” The business owner continued, “Basically, what happened was the young guy came running…looking for a place to hide.” Asked if he was injured, the witness said, “Yes, he was hurt, in the neck, behind his ear.”

 

We asked if the injury was a cut. He replied, “No, from a bullet. He decided to place himself in the barber shop to hide from the police, and I don’t know, maybe after 20 minutes, the police came and they took him.” Asked if he knew what time that was, more or less, the business owner said, “I don’t know exactly what time, but I know it lasted about 20 minutes before the cops arrived.”

 

He added that he spoke with Demmerle directly. “We wanted him to leave, to exit the store, and he said, ‘No,’ that if we put him outside, they would kill him, the gang, the other gang,” the business owner said. “He was a young guy. He said the other group were looking for him,” he added.

 

Asked if Demmerle had known the people who were in the barber shop before he entered, the business owner said, “No, he entered by chance……some place to hide himself. We told him he had to go outside, and he said, ‘No,’ not to call the police, that he wasn’t armed. He lifted his shirt to show us his body. He said, ‘I don’t have a knife. I don’t have a gun. I don’t have anything. I just want you to help me, and to hide me’.”

We asked the business owner if he and the others in the barber shop did as Demmerle asked. He replied, “No, we told him to go outside because we knew something was not right.” Asked if Demmerle complied with their request, he said, “No. The police had to come and take him out. He was taken out by the police.”

 

The business owner added that he thought everything unfolded in the best possible way. “Because when he saw… he wanted to hide. He looked and he saw the guy (barbershop employee) alone and he entered,” the business owner continued. “If we, three, hadn’t followed him into the barber shop, he would have taken another attitude. He adopted a calm attitude because we were three men, interacting with this young guy, and he was saying, ‘Oh I’m good. I don’t want any problems. I don’t have any weapons. I’m a father of a family.’ This guy wasn’t more than 25 years old. This was a young guy,” the business owner added.

 

On Nov. 10, the New York Attorney General’s Office of Special Investigation (OSI) announced it had opened an investigation into the death of Lockett, who, they said, died following the encounter with members of the NYPD. Officials said that pursuant to New York State executive law section 70-b, the Office of Special Investigations assesses every incident reported to it where a police officer or a peace officer, including a corrections officer, may have caused the death of a person, by an act or omission.

 

They said under the law, an officer may be on-duty or off-duty and the deceased may be armed or unarmed. Also, the deceased may or may not be in custody or incarcerated. They said, “If OSI’s assessment indicates an officer caused the death, the office will proceed to conduct a full investigation of the incident.” OSI officials added that these were preliminary facts and subject to change.

 

A photo of a gun and a knife recovered at the scene was shared by police during the press conference on the day of the shooting. Police said a preliminary investigation found that neither civilian had any connection to the bodega.

The motive for the shooting is still unclear and under investigation. In response to media questions on the day of the shooting, police said an initial review of the guns involved belonging to the detectives showed that one of the officers involved shot two rounds and another shot ten rounds. They added that the information was subject to change and that a statement would be forthcoming from the detective squad. The police confirmed that the detectives involved were not wearing body-worn cameras.

 

Norwood News previously reported on a reported shooting in the vicinity of the same location of Hull Avenue and East Gun Hill Road on Tuesday, July 26, 2022, along with the reaction from local business owners to the incident. We also reported on another shooting at nearby East 204th Street in Norwood on Sept. 22, that left one man critical. Business owners and residents weighed in, once again, with their feelings on the latest Nov. 3rd Gun Hill Road shooting, as reported.

 

Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the CrimeStoppers website at https://crimestoppers.nypdonline.org/ or on Twitter @NYPDTips.

 

All calls are strictly confidential.