Families Heartbroken After 2 Close Friends Are Shot Dead In Rosedale, Queens
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Two young men who were best friends and neighbors were gunned down and killed outside their family homes in Rosedale, Queens this past weekend.
As CBS2' Sonia Rincon reported, an intense manhunt was under way Friday for the gunman who killed the college students. Their families were desperate for answers.
Candles flickered outside the homes of lifelong friends and next-door neighbors Peyton Manwaring and Marcus Mendez.
"They were like brothers," said friend Nazire Jarvis. "Blood couldn't make them any thicker."
Their homes were also a crime scene. Both college students collapsed on 144th Avenue near Brookville Boulevard as their killer ran last Saturday night – a camera getting only a quick image of the hooded gunman.
Manwaring's funeral was held Friday.
"I'm going to miss him tremendously," said his father, Anthony Manwaring. "He was like my best friend."
"It doesn't feel real to me," added Jarvis.
Neighbors said they would often see Manwaring and Mendez playing basketball together, and they were always together. Friends said the pair stayed out of trouble together, and neither had ever been arrested.
Those facts made their deaths especially hard to understand.
There were bags of marijuana at the crime scene -- leading police to believe the shooting was drug-related -- and Mendez received a mysterious text message before he went outside.
None of the events made sense to the victims' friends. Jarvis said Mendez was studying criminal justice on a football scholarship.
"He inspired me," Jarvis said. "Like, I always looked at him and tried to, like, stay on the right path like him."
"A teacher has never called me to school to say Peyton has misbehaved in class," added Anthony Manwaring.
"They were both in college," said Yvette Small, PTA president at P.S. and M.S. 138 Sunrise. "We asked them to grow up to be good citizens of this country, and that's exactly what they were doing."
"If anybody saw something they need to say something," said Peyton Manwaring's aunt, Susan Manwaring.
"Put down the guns," added Anthony Manwaring. "There's too many illegal guns on the street in the wrong hands."
The loss was especially tragic for Anthony Manwaring. He lost his other son, 23-year old Anthony, back in August to cancer,
Peyton Manwaring had been at a prayer service his brother hours before he was shot.
The funeral for Mendez will be held next weekend.