A young man was disconnected by his parents after spending 3 weeks in a coma, amputated and handcuffed after being shot and hitting his head in a fall in NYC
Tresean Gilchrist, a 24-year-old, died after spending 3 weeks in a coma and handcuffed after being shot in the stomach and hitting his head while trying to escape a burst of gunfire on a sidewalk in Harlem (NYC).
In the midst of the July 13 shooting, Gilchrist hit his head and suffered a traumatic brain injury. After three weeks, his parents made the difficult decision yesterday to take him off life support.
“That was the worst decision I ever had to make in my life,” Jerome Gilchrist told the Daily News. “It upset me every day to see him like that and with his leg severed.” The distraught parents said the young man didn’t even know he had been shot when he was among a group of people who ran for their lives as bullets began flying along W. 144th St. near 7th Ave. Only moments before he collapsed did he realize he was wounded.
“One of his friends who was there told me that’s what he said: ‘I got shot,’” said the distraught mother, Imee Wilkins. “His friend said, ‘Lay down, lay down,’ but it was too late. Tresean just fell down.”
Cops initially said Gilchrist was shot after an argument with the gunman near W. 140th St. around 1 a.m. But Gilchrist’s mother and father, who spoke to other people present, said he was hit by a stray bullet fired at the group amid a dispute between two men.
The gunman, dressed all in black, ran off. Police recovered three shell casings on W. 144th St., according to preliminary reports.
A friend of Gilchrist notified his parents that he had been wounded, and the couple rushed to Harlem Hospital, where their son spent seven hours in surgery and had to have his leg amputated due to an infection. They were also unable to see him afterward as he was handcuffed to the bed because he had an outstanding warrant stemming from a 2021-2022 arrest for jumping a subway turnstile.
Gilchrist’s parents were outraged. “They had him handcuffed” on one arm and one leg, his father said. “We had to go to the police station first and (at the hospital) he had a police officer in front of his room like he was going to run away or something” even with his leg severed.
“When they were talking about his head injury, they said he would never be able to remember anything, that he might not know who he was. We would have to put him in a facility and he would be on a machine and we would talk to him like we do now. I didn’t want to see him like that anymore.”
In addition to working as a security guard, Gilchrist bought and sold high-end sneakers and liked the finer things in life, his parents said.
“He loved designer things,” his mother said. “He would wear $600 or $700 jeans. His tastes were beyond my means… When he gave gifts, he gave big gifts. He would make sure you were taken care of. And his friends will tell you he took care of them.”
No arrests have been made and no suspects have been identified. Anyone with information is asked to call 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) and in Spanish 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). Also through crimestoppers.nypdonline.org or by text message to 274637 (CRIMES), followed by TIP577. All communications are strictly confidential.
In a similar case, last night six young men were wounded by two gunmen outside a park in the Bronx. Gun violence is constant in New York and some victims are hit at random in the streets, schools, public transportation and businesses. The confrontations are often linked to a battle between gang members for territory and suspects often incriminate themselves by bragging and posting about their crimes on social media.