Newburgh victim shot in apparent act of retaliation: Source

A Newburgh boy was apparently shot dead in his home by another child in a twisted act of revenge for an earlier shooting involving the victim’s older brother, a source told The Post.

Friends and family identified the 11-year-old victim Saturday by his first name, Matthew.

Matthew was inside his family’s North Miller Street with three other kids, all under the age of 18, when the alleged killer — who was just 13 — allegedly pulled the trigger, Orange County DA David Hoovler told The Post Saturday. 

“There were four people in the immediate area when the boy was shot,” Hoovler said.

An unregistered gun was found at the scene, he noted.

The shooter, who has not been publicly identified, has been charged with second degree murder.

Hoovler declined to discuss a motive in the fatal shooting — but noted all the children had social media.

“Overall, what we’re seeing with juveniles is that they don’t have the understanding of the finality of pulling the trigger and the fact that it’s going to affect their lives forever,” he said. 

“A lot of them don’t have the interpersonal skills for dealing with one another face to face,” he said. “They don’t have the normal dispute resolution skills in order to resolve some of these situations without escalating into violence.”

Another source told The Post the Thursday shooting, which rocked the Hudson Valley community, was done out of vengeance for an earlier shooting involving Matthew’s older brother. Details of that incident were unavailable.

Matthew’s distraught family declined to comment.

“He always rode his bike around right here,” said the victim’s friend, Jaleel Hargrove, who was wearing a shirt with the dead boy’s photo on it that read “Rest in Peace Matthew.”

“He played basketball with us,” the 17-year-old said. “We would go on bike rides. It really hurt me a lot when I found out it was him that passed away.

“I see people that’s gang affiliated,” he added. “He never wanted to do anything like that, he just wanted to get rich, he would say.”

A makeshift memorial of balloons, candles and flowers — and torn up one and five dollar bills — stood in front of the home Saturday.

One flower arrangement contained a note: “You were like a best friend/ lil brother/fake cousin all at once. I can’t believe you are gone. It really hurts my soul. You didn’t deserve this baby boy, I’m sorry. I love you buddy.”

Jaleel remembered Matthew as “always by himself” but “always in a good mood riding his bike somewhere or playing basketball.” 

“Last time I saw him was on Tuesday,” Jaleel said.

“He was over here playing basketball,” he said. “He asked me for a dollar so he can get a soda for the store.
I gave him a dollar.”

A neighbor who identified herself as Jenna, 25, was jolted awake by the crack of gunfire Thursday.

“I just went back to sleep because I hear gunshots all the time,” she said.

“This is the only one that made headlines because it’s like kids but like there’s gunshots all the time.”

Jaleel had a message for the boy who shot his friend.

 “What you did is wrong, ’cause he was young, he was only 11 years old, and you deserve whatever time you get for it.”