“Kahton, you wouldn’t think he’d have a gun,” said Katoya Williams, 14, who was passing by the Stack Money Goons’ sidewalk haunt on Thursday afternoon. “Of all the boys, I wouldn’t expect him to have one. He’s real decent.”Among all his friends at Tompkins and at his former school, Middle School 57, Kahton, an eighth grader, seemed to be one of the least needy. He lived in a small, tidy apartment on Gates Avenue with his mother, a United States Postal Service letter carrier who regularly attended parent-teacher conferences. On his PlayStation, earned, a relative said, through schoolwork and chores, he played NBA 2K and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 with friends. A forward on the basketball team with a decent shot, a height more like that of a 17-year-old than a 14-year-old and a love for the Denver Nuggets and the Chicago Bulls, Kahton spent many lunchtime and after-school hours playing pickup games with friends. He was popular with girls and boys alike, a clown who invented nonsense sounds in class just to make his friends laugh. After school, he would stop at the bodega for a can of mango-flavored Arizona Iced Tea and packs of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups to share.
Posted on: Tue, 01 Apr 2014 16:10:57 +0000