A New York corrections officer has been charged in the killing of a Bronx teen, who was shot in the face in an incident where a toy gun featured in a recent TikTok trend may have played a role in his death.
Raymond Chaluisant, 18, was found unconscious and unresponsive with a gunshot wound to the face from a weapon fired by Dion Middleton, who was off duty, in the Bronx near the intersection of the Cross Bronx Expressway and Morris Avenue at around 1:35 a.m. Thursday, a New York Police Department spokesperson told The Washington Post.
After police found him in a friend’s car about a half-mile away from the scene of the shooting, Chaluisant was transferred to St. Barnabas Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Middleton, 45, was arrested and charged with murder, manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon.
A spokesperson with the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association, the union that represents him, did not immediately respond to a request for comment early Friday. It’s unclear whether Middleton has an attorney.
There was no evidence as of early Friday that Chaluisant fired or aimed the toy gun at Middleton before the corrections officer shot and killed the teen, authorities said.
Chaluisant’s older sister, Jiraida Esquilin, told the New York Daily News that her brother was taking part in a water-gun fight with some friends on a hot summer night.
“They were just having fun,” said Esquilin, 29. “It’s a new nerf gun that shoots water. The whole neighborhood was having a water gun fight. It was 90 degrees.”
The amped-up toy water guns have been popular in recent months thanks to the “Orbeez Challenge” on TikTok, which encourages users to buy Orbeez soft gel or water balls, load them in airsoft guns and fire them at people when they least expect it. Some of the videos posted on TikTok and YouTube since the spring, which have gotten millions of views, show young people firing the toy guns from moving vehicles.
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