Teen shot dead near Brooklyn cop station ‘a good boy’

Laquan Nelson, 16, was fatally shot yesterday at the Classon Playground in Brooklyn across from his apartment building.

The 16-year-old shot dead just paces from a Brooklyn police station was arguing with a group of people at a nearby basketball court before someone blasted him in the chest, officials said Tuesday.

Laquan (Popcorn) Nelson was playing basketball on a Classon Ave. court in Fort Greene when shots rang out at 5:45 p.m. Monday.

A .25-cal. shell casing was found at the scene.

“Popcorn got shot!” witnesses screamed as terrified residents from the Lafayette Gardens housing project scrambled for cover.

Despite his fatal wound, Laquan staggered out of the basketball court and down the street, where he collapsed outside of the 88th Precinct stationhouse.

I think (the shooter) was jealous of him ‘cause he was doing the right things.

He was rushed to Brooklyn Hospital Center, but could not be saved.

Laquan had two arrests on his record — one for assault — and was believed to be a member of the Bloods street gang, police sources said.

Yet friends and family members described Laquan as a quiet youth who wanted to either play basketball or make eyeglasses.

“They took my child. That’s all,” Laquan’s grandmother Shirley Nelson, 64, told the Daily News Tuesday. “All we could do is remember the good times we had with him.”

Laquan Nelson, 16, was a good student at William H. Maxwell Career and Technical Education High School in East New York, his grandmother and aunt say.

“He was not a problematic kid,” said one neighbor, who would only identify herself as D. “He basically was a good boy. Unless his friends went out, he wasn’t going outside.”

Laquan was raised by his grandmother and aunt Sandra Nelson, 57, who described him as a good student at the William H. Maxwell Career and Technical Education High School in East New York.

“I think (the shooter) was jealous of him ‘cause he was doing the right things,” she said.

Cops were looking for Laquan’s killer Tuesday night.

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