The 16-year-old boy killed on the Lower East Side on Friday night was a gangster with a long rap sheet who was more than likely the target of death – and is at least the 22nd teenager killed by street violence in the Big Apple this year, law enforcement sources said.
Isaiah Levine was a prominent member of the Pitt Street Crew and had counted 11 felony arrests between 2018 and 2021, ranging from possession of a gun and theft with a knife to one arrest and criminal mischief for allegedly jumping and trampled a teacher’s car in November 2018, the sources said.
Levine was hanging out with a group at the corner of Delancey and Suffolk streets when a gunman approached and began to explode around 8:30 p.m., fatally hitting the teenager in the face, police and sources said. Levine was rushed to Bellevue Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
“It wasn’t a kid who stayed inside,” said a man in his twenties who said he knew Levine, who lived in NYCHA’s Baruch Houses in Delancey. “He wasn’t going to school. He wasn’t the kid when you hear that, you say ‘Wow, I never expect that.’ You are waiting for it. He was living the life… “I’m sorry for what happened though. He was young, ”said the man near the scene of the shooting.
Levine was the subject of a series of robberies against Asian Americans on the Lower East Side and was suspected of homicide in the area, police sources said.
He was on the streets after being arrested in February on a firearms charge, people familiar with the matter said. This case, which occurred in Staten Island, is sealed, they said.
Levine’s latest open case concerns a robbery that occurred on January 22, 2020. He last appeared in court on September 2, sources said. The case was adjourned until November 9.
Family and friends were overwhelmed with grief on Saturday morning at the Baruch Houses.
“I’m trying to pull myself together,” her distraught mother, Valerie Andrews, 50, told The Post. “I’m in shock..My feelings are shot down. I am angry and upset. I don’t know who did this, but I hope to get justice, ”she said.
A teenage girl who had known Levine for four years broke down in tears when a Post reporter showed her her photo.
“Oh my God, it’s Zay! She said, a reference to the rue de Levine name. “He’s the sweetest thing there is. He doesn’t bother anyone, ”she said, wiping away her tears. She remembered that Levine had an older brother.
There were no arrests in connection with the fatal shooting. Police sources said four men were seen fleeing the scene and five .40 caliber shell casings were recovered from the scene.
A Post analysis of NYPD data found that at least 21 children were killed by guns or knives between January and September 30 – more than triple the number for the same period in 2019 and 2020.
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