Jelani Green dies 2 months after being struck by stray bullet at Bronx basketball game
NEW YORK -- A Bronx woman has died two months after she was struck by a stray bullet at a basketball game, and police say there are still no arrests.
On June 19, Jelani Green and her family went to Half Nelson Playground to watch her brother play in a Father's Day basketball tournament.
David Love remembers the last conversation he had with his sister.
"Before the game started, she asked me, like, 'Dave, you ready?' I was like, yeah, and she was smiling," he told CBS2's Alecia Reid.
By the time the game ended, police say a single gunshot rang out. It hit the 25-year-old in the neck, severing her spinal cord and exiting through her left shoulder. She was left paralyzed from the neck down.
"My sister didn't deserve that. She was only 25 years old. She had a whole lot left to live," said Green's sister, Chanel Love.
For months, family members visited Green at St. Barnabas Hospital. Her mother says Green suffered a stroke in August, then came a number of infections, collapsed lungs and more.
"My baby had a trach. My baby had a pacemaker. My baby had a peg," Greta Love said.
But she kept fighting, and her family expected her to survive.
"She was strong for a long time," Greta Love said.
Police believe this all stemmed from a gang rivalry at the park.
Her mother says she'll always have one regret about that night.
"I'll always be saddened, if I would've left five mins earlier, even three minutes earlier," Greta Love said.
Green's family is now tasked with planning a funeral they're not prepared for. Meanwhile, police say this is still an ongoing investigation. So far, no arrests have been made.
