Police found the body of 15-year-old Trevor Rudd in the stairwell of his building in Queens, New York, Saturday afternoon.
A 31-year-old man was taken into custody, but his mother Annie Johnson later told the Daily News that a friend had shot Rudd over an iPhone.
“I know the friend that killed my son,” she said on Sunday, Jan. 14. “Everybody told me who killed him.”
“He was being robbed for his phone.”
“Nowadays you don’t need a reason to kill someone. My son was well known and well liked.”
Neighbors said the boy and the gunman were fighting over a phone, reported the Daily News.
Johnson told the Daily News she had warned his friend not to hang out with her son. "But my son trusted everyone and liked everyone. ”
A relative said Rudd was getting ready to eat when he left to meet a friend who had called, according to Daily News.
The relative said Rudd was born and raised in the building and describing him as a “humble” boy.
“If he was in any type of trouble we didn’t know about it,” the relative said. “I just don’t understand it. I don’t. Never heard him get loud and saw him in any arguments.”
Police found Rudd’s body in the Beach 41st Street Houses on Beach Channel Drive in Edgemere around 1:30 p.m.
They later arrested a man, Miles Sutton, who was captured on camera running out of the stairwell at the time of the murder.
However, Sutton, 31, has not been charged with murder, although he was charged with tampering with evidence, criminal possession of marijuana, and criminal possession of a gun, according to the Daily News.
Johnson told the Daily News she did not believe Sutton was the killer.
Friends Read Free